THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


This  book  it 

'-  8  1921 


3m 


'AN  1  g 


fEB 


TOPICAL  NOTES 


AMERICAN  AUTHORS 


LUCY  TAPPAN 

TEACHER  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE  IN  THE  GLOUCESTER  (MASS.)  HIGH  SCHOOL 


SILVER,  BURDETT,  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK        BOSTON        CHICAGO 
1896 


COPYRIGHT,   1896,  BY 
SILVER,  BURDETT,  AND  COMPANY. 


C.    J.    PETERS   &   SON,    TYPOGRAPHERS. 


BERWICK   &   SMITH,    PRINTERS, 


»  2 


P  R  E  P'  A  C  E 


THE  following  notes  were  gathered  for  the  use  of  classes 
in  the  Gloucester  High  School,  and  are  the  outgrowth  of 
several  years'  teaching  in  the  department  of  literature. 

The  aim  in  their  preparation  was  to  create  an  interest 
in  the  personality  of  the  authors  as  revealed  in  character 
istic  utterances  and  in  their  lives,  in  order  to  heighten  the 
enjoyment  of  individual  writings. 

The  general  plan  of  treatment  is  as  follows :  (1)  Short 
selections  from  works,  (2)  list  of  reference  books  and  maga 
zines,  (3)  topical  outline  of  life,  (4)  appellations,  (5)  notes 
on  writings,  (6)  miscellaneous  notes.  In  the  case  of  Ir 
ving  and  of  Thoreau,  the  notes  on  the  life  and  those  on 
the  writings  have  been  combined. 

The  brief  extracts  from  the  verse  and  prose  of  Whit- 
tier,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Holmes,  Emerson,  Hawthorne, 
and  Thoreau  are  used 'by  permission  of  and  by  arrange 
ment  with  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co.,  the  author 
ized  publishers  of  their  works ;  the  selections  from  Ir 
ving,  through  the  courtesy  of  Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons ;  and  those  from  Bryant,  through  the  courtesy  of 
Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


LUCY  TAPPAN. 


GLOUCESTER,  MASS. 
March,  1896. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE  3 

SUGGESTIONS 7 

(iKNKHAL  REFERENCE  BOOKS 9 

AUTHORS  : 

Washington  Irving 13 

James  Fenimore  Cooper    . 39 

William  Cullen  Bryant 57 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne 83 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson       117 

Henry  David  Thoreau        141 

Edgar  Allan  Poe        159 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 185 

James  Russell  Lowell 227 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier 253 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 285 

VERSIFICATION  (ANALYSIS  OF) 321 


SUGGESTIONS. 


Ix  connection  with  TOPICAL  NOTES,  the  pupil  should 
be  encouraged  to  do  as  much  of  the  reading  referred  to 
in  them  as  time  and  material  will  allow,  and  to  keep  a 
list  of  such  reading  for  his  own  satisfaction,  and  for  the 
aid  of  the  teacher.  This  list  should  include  both  what  has 
been  read  from  the  author  himself,  and  the  books  and 
magazines  consulted  with  regard  to  him  or  his  works. 

The  periodical  literature  alluded  to  may  be  found,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  at  the  nearest  public  library, 
in  the  homes  of  various  members  of  the  class,  or  upon 
application  to  the  publishers.  The  school  itself  can 
secure  for  its  own  possession  many  of  the  books  .named, 
if  interested  to  do  so.  The  Gloucester  High  School,  by 
annual  courses  of  public  lectures  and  entertainments,  has 
been  able  to  purchase,  within  a  few  years,  most  of  the 
text-books  and  miscellaneous  works  indicated  in  the  gene 
ral  reference  list,  one  biography  of  each  writer,  and  such 
voluminous  publications  as  Wilson  and  Fiske's  Cyclopaedia 
of  American  Biography,  the  Stedman-Hutchinson  Library 
of  American  Literature,  Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors, 
and  The  Encyclopaedia  Britanniea. 

Information  gained  from  the  various  sources  upon  any 
one  topic  may  frequently  be  wrought  into  composition 
form,  either  by  impromptu  ten-minute  writing  in  the 
recitation  hour,  or  by  essays  formally  prepared  outside 
of  the  class-room. 

7 


8  SUGGESTIONS. 

Pupils  will  find  pleasure  in  making  scrap  albums  of 
clippings  and  views  pertaining  to  the  lives  and  writings 
of  the  authors.  For  these  albums,  unmounted  photo 
graphs,  old  magazines,  portrait  catalogues,  and  current 
literature  will  furnish  abundant  material.  The  search 
for  this  material  will  give  new  interest  to  the  periodical 
literature  of  the  day,  and  a  keener  appreciation  of  it. 

A  visit  to  any  literary  Mecca  that  may  be  accessible 
to  one  or  to  all  members  of  a  class  serves  as  stimulus  to 
the  regular  work,  and  often  makes  an  impression  that  will 
give  pleasurable  vividness  to  subsequent  reading. 

The  study  of  Hawthorne,  of  Cooper,  and  of  Holmes, 
would  be  quite  incomplete  without  the  reading  in  its 
entirety  of  a  novel  by  each.  It  is  desirable,  also,  that 
the  student  should  read  a  biography  of  at  least  one  writer 
among  those  included  in  the  course ;  he  may  by  this  means 
win  a  lifelong  personal  friend  (for  is  not  a  loved  writer  to 
be  classed  with  our  truest  and  most  helpful  friends  ?),  and 
create  a  taste  for  biographical  literature  in  general. 

The  memorizing  of  choice  thoughts  from  the  writings 
of  an  author  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  phases  of  lit 
erary  study,  and  is  worthy  of  emphatic  attention.  Some 
such  thoughts  may  be  pointed  out  by  the  teacher,  while 
the  pupil  may  be  expected  to  cull  others  for  himself. 

Inexpensive  copies  of  selected  works  from  most  of  the 
authors  treated  can  readily  be  obtained  for  class-room 
use.  (See  list  of  general  reference  books.) 

TOPICAL  NOTES  will  prove  helpful  only  as  made  subordi 
nate  and  supplementary  to  the  study  of  the  literature 
itself. 


GENERAL   REFERENCE   BOOKS. 


MAINLY   BIOGRAPHICAL. 

WILSON  AND  FISKE'S  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography.    (Illustrated.) 

LIPPINCOTT'S  Dictionary  of  Biography. 

APPLKTONS'  American  Encyclopaedia. 

The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.     (With  Supplement.) 

ARTHUR  OILMAN'S  Poets'  Homes.     (Illustrated.) 

RICHARD  H.  STODDARD'S  Poets'  Homes.     (This  and  its  predecessor  are 

supplementary.     Illustrated.) 

G.  W.  CURTIS'S  Homes  of  American  Authors.     (1853.     Illustrated.) 
HATTIE  T.  GRISWOLD'S  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 
SARAH  K.  BOLTON'S  Famous  American  Authors. 

MAINLY   CRITICAL. 

CHARLES  F.  RICHARDSON'S  American  Literature. 

EDMUND  C.  STEDMAN'S  Poets  of  America. 

ALLIBONE'S  Dictionary  of  Authors.    (With  two  supplementary  volumes.) 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE'S  Literati.  (Bryant.  Cooper.  Hawthorne.  Long 
fellow.  Lowell.) 

T.  W.  HIGGINSON'S  Short  Studies  of  American  Authors.  (Hawthorne. 
Poe.  Thoreau.) 

Mosics  COIT  TYLER'S  History  of  American  Literature. 

BIOGRAPHICAL  AND   CRITICAL. 

American  Men  of  Letters  Series.  — 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT.  By  John  Bigelow. 

JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER.  By  T.  R.  Lounsbury. 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON.  By  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

WASHINGTON  IRVING.  By  Charles  Dudley  Warner. 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL.  By  George  E.  Woodberry. 

(In  preparation.) 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE.  By  George  E.  Woodberry. 

HENRY  D.  THOREAU.  By  Frank  B.  Sanhorn. 

JOHN  G.  WHITTIER.  By  G.  R.  Carpenter. 

(In  preparation.) 

9 


10  GENERAL   REFERENCE  BOOKS. 

English  Men  of  Letters  Series. — 

HAWTHORNE.  By  Henry  James. 
Great  Writers  Series.  — 

LIFE  OF  EMERSON.  By  Richard  Ganiett,  LL.D. 

LIFE  OF  HAWTHORNE.  By  Moiicure  D.  Conway. 

LIFE  OF  LONGFELLOW.  By  E.  S.  Robertson. 

LIFE  OF  WHITTIER.  By  W.  J.  Lintori. 

Text-Books  and  Cyclopaedias.  — 

HENRY  A.  BEERS'S  Initial  Studies  in  American  Literature. 
HAWTHORNE  AND  LEMMON'S  American  Literature.  (Illustrated.) 
CHARLES  F.  RICHARDSON'S  Primer  of  American  Literature. 
CHARLES  D.  CLEVELAND'S  Compendium  of  American  Literature. 
FRANCIS  H.  UNDERWOOD'S  Hand-Book  of  American  Authors. 
FRANCIS  H.  UNDERWOOD'S  Builders  of  American  Literature. 
N.  K.  ROYSE'S  Manual  of  American  Literature. 
HORACE  H.  MORGAN'S  English  and  American  Literature. 
MILDRED  C.  W  ATKINS'S  Primer  of  American  Literature. 
DUYCKINCK'S  Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature. 
RUFUS  GRISWOLD'S  Prose  Writers  of  America. 
RUFUS  GRISWOLD'S  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America. 
F.  L.  PATTEE'S  History  of  American  Literature. 
JENNIE  E.  KEYSOR'S  Sketches  of  American  Writers.    (Illustrated.) 
HENRIETTA  C.  WRIGHT'S  Children's  Stories  in  American  Liter 
ature. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

ALFRED  H.  WELSH'S  Digest  of  English  and  American  Literature. 

G.  J.  SMITH'S  Synopsis  of  English  and  American  Literature. 

SELDEN  L.  WHITCOMB'S  Chronological  Outlines  of  American  Literature. 

GREENOUGH  WHITE'S  Philosophy  of  American  Literature. 

LOUISE  M.  HODGKINS'S  Guide  to  the  Study  of  Nineteenth  Century 
Authors. 

OSCAR  FAY  ADAMS'S  Hand-Book  of  American  Authors. 

H.  R.  HAWEIS'S  American  Humorists. 

J.  R.  LOWELL'S  A  Fable  for  Critics. 

WILLIAM  SHEPARD'S  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 

ALFRED  S.  ROE'S  American  Authors  and  Their  Birthdays. 

J.  C.  DERBY'S  Fifty  Years  Among  American  Authors,  Books,  and  Pub 
lishers. 

ALONZO  CHAPPEL'S  National  Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Americans. 
(1864.  Illustrated.) 


GENERAL  REFERENCE  BOOKS.         11 

ALFRED  H.  WELSH'S  English  Masterpiece  Course.    (Critical  References.) 

R.  E.  THOMPSON'S  Syllabus  of  University  Extension  Lectures  on  the 
History  of  American  Literature. 

J.  H.  PENNIMAN'S  Syllabus  of  University  Extension  Lectures  on  Amer 
ican  Authors.  (Franklin.  Irving.  Poe.  Lowell.) 

POOLE'S  Index  to  Periodical  Literature.  (With  two  supplements, 
bringing  the  work  down  to  January,  1892.) 

Portrait  Catalogues. 

BOOKS  CONTAINING  EXTRACTS   FROM  AUTHORS 
SELECTED. 

The  STEDMAN-HUTCHINSON  Library  of  American  Literature. 

UNDERWOOD'S  American  Authors. 

CLEVELAND'S  American  Literature. 

Masterpieces  of  American  Literature. 

American  Poems.     (Edited  by  Horace  E.  Scudder.) 

American  Prose.     (Edited  by  Horace  E.  Scudder.) 

BEERS'S  Initial  Studies.    Appendix. 

BEERS'S  Century  of  American  Literature. 

WILLIAM  SWINTON'S  Studies  in  English  Literature.  (Annotated  Selec 
tions  from  Bryant,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Holmes,  Longfellow, 
and  Whittier.) 

GRISWOLD'S  Prose  Writers  of  America. 

CHARLES  MORRIS'S  Half  Hours  with  American  Authors. 

CHARLES  MORRIS'S  Half  Hours  with  Humorous  Authors. 

CHAMBERS'S  Cyclopaedia  of  English  Literature. 

Leaflets.  —  (For  class-room  use.  Annotated,  and  with  biographical 
sketches.) 

The  Riverside  Literature  Series.  (Bryant.  Emerson.  Hawthorne. 
Holmes.  Irving.  Longfellow.  Lowell.  Thoreau.  Whittier.) 
Portraits  and  Biographical  Sketches  of  Twenty  American  Au 
thors. 

MAYNARD'S  English  Classic  Series.  (Irving.  Emerson.  Longfellow. 
Whittier.) 


WASHINaTON  IRVING. 


WASHINGTON    IRVING. 

ESSAYIST,  ROMANCER,  HISTORIAN,  BIOGRAPHER,  TRAVELLER. 


EXTRACTS. 

A  MAN  as  he  grows  old  must  take  care  not  to  grow 
musty,  or  fusty,  or  rusty  —  an  old  bachelor  especially. 

LETTER. 

THE  ALMIGHTY  DOLLAR,  that  great  object  of  universal 
devotion  throughout  our  land,  seems  to  have  no  genuine 

devotees  in  these  peculiar  villages. 

THE  CREOLE  VILLAGE. 

HE  [Governor  Van  T wilier]  was  exactly  five  feet  six 
inches  in  height,  and  six  feet  five  inches  in  circumfer 
ence.  His  head  was  a  perfect  sphere,  and  of  such  stu 
pendous  dimensions,  that  Dame  Nature,  with  all  her  sex's 
ingenuity,  would  have  been  puzzled  to  construct  a  neck 
capable  of  supporting  it ;  wherefore  she  wisely  declined 
the  attempt,  and  settled  it  firmly  on  the  top  of  his  back 
bone,  just  between  the  shoulders.  His  body  was  oblong, 
and  particularly  capacious  at  bottom ;  which  was  wisely 
ordained  by  Providence,  seeing  that  he  was  a  man  of 
sedentary  habits,  and  very  averse  to  the  idle  labor  of 
walking.  His  legs  were  short,  but  sturdy  in  proportion 
to  the  weight  they  had  to  sustain ;  so  that,  when  erect, 
he  had  not  a  little  the  appearance  of  a  beer-barrel  on 

15 


16  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

skids.  His  face,  that  infallible  index  of  the  mind,  pre 
sented  a  vast  expanse,  unfurrowed  by  any  of  those  lines 
and  angles  which  disfigure  the  human  countenance  with 
what  is  called  expression.  Two  small  gray  eyes  twinkled 
feebly  in  the  midst,  like  two  stars  of  lesser  magnitude  in 
a  hazy  firmament,  and  his  full-fed  cheeks,  which  seemed 
to  have  taken  toll  of  everything  that  went  into  his  mouth, 
were  curiously  mottled  and  streaked  with  dusky  red,  like 

'  a  Spitzeiiburg  apple. 

HISTORY  OF  NEW  YOKK. 

HER  mighty  lakes,  like  oceans  of  liquid  silver ;  her 
mountains,  with  their  bright  aerial  tints  ;  her  valleys,  teem 
ing  with  wild  fertility ;  her  tremendous  cataracts,  thun 
dering  in  their  solitudes ;  her  boundless  plains,  waving 
with  spontaneous  verdure ;  her  broad,  deep  rivers,  rolling 
.in  solemn  silence  to  the  ocean ;  her  trackless  forests, 
where  vegetation  puts  forth  all  its  magnificence ;  her 
skies,  kindling  with  the  magic  of  summer  clouds  and  glo 
rious  sunshine,  —  no,  never  need  an  American  look  beyond 
hrs  own  country  for  the  sublime  and  beautiful  of  natural 

scenery. 

PREFACE  TO  THE  SKETCH-BOOK. 

THE    WIDOW  AND  HER  SON. 

Pittie  okle  age,  within  whose  silver  liaires 
Honor  and  reverence  evermore  have  raign'd. 

MAKLOWE'S  Tamburlaine. 

DURING  my  residence  in  the  country,  I  used  frequently 
to  attend  at  the  old  village  church.  Its  shadowy  aisles,  its 
mouldering  monuments,  its  dark  oaken  panelling,  all  rev 
erend  Avith  the  gloom  of  departed  years,  seemed  to  fit  it 
for  the  haunt  of  solemn  meditation.  A  Sunday,  too,  in 
the  country,  is  so  holy  in  its  repose  —  such  a  pensive 


EXTRACTS.  17 

quiet  reigns  over  the  face  of  nature,  that  every  restless 
passion  is  charmed  down,  and  we  feel  all  the  natural  reli 
gion  of  the  soul  gently  springing  up  within  us. 

"  Sweet  day,  so  pure,  so  calm,  so  bright, 
The  bridal  of  the  earth  and  sky  ! " 

I  cannot  lay  claim  to  the  merit  of  being  a  devout  man ; 
but  there  are  feelings  that  visit  me  in  a  country  church, 
amid  the  beautiful  serenity  of  nature,  which  I  experience 
nowhere  else  ;  and,  if  not  a  more  religious,  I  think  that 
I  am  a  better,  man  on  Sunday,  than  on  any  other  day 
of  the  seven. 

But  in  this  church  I  felt  myself  continually  thrown 
back  upon  the  world  by  the  frigidity  and  pomp  of  the 
poor  worms  around  me.  The  only  being  that  seemed 
thoroughly  to  feel  the  humble  and  prostrate  piety  of  a 
true  Christian  was  a  poor,  decrepit  old  woman,  bending 
under  the  weight  of  years  and  infirmities.  She  bore  the 
traces  of  something  better  than  abject  poverty.  The  lin- 
gerings  of  decent  pride  were  visible  in  her  appearance. 
Her  dress,  though  humble  in  the  extreme,  was  scrupu 
lously  clean.  Some  trivial  respect,  too,  had  been  awarded 
her,  for  she  did  not  take  her  seat  among  the  village  poor, 
but  sat  alone  on  the  steps  of  the  altar.  She  seemed  to 
have  survived  all  love,  all  friendship,  all  society;  and  to 
have  nothing  left  her  but  the  hopes  of  heaven.  When  I 
saw  her  feebly  rising  and  bending  her  aged  form  in  prayer  ; 
habitually  conning  her  prayer-book,  which  her  palsied  hand 
and  failing  eyes  would  not  permit  her  to  read,  but  which 
she  evidently  knew  by  heart ;  I  felt  persuaded  that  the 
faltering  voice  of  that  poor  woman  arose  to  heaven  far 
before  the  responses  of  the  clerk,  the  swell  of  the  organ, 
or  the  chanting  of  the  choir. 


18  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

I  am  fond  of  loitering  about  country  churches;  and 
this  was  so  delightfully  situated  that  it  frequently  at 
tracted  me.  It  stood  on  a  knoll,  round  which  a  small 
stream  made  a  beautiful  bend,  and  then  wound  its  way 
through  a  long  reach  of  soft  meadow  scenery.  The  church 
was  surrounded  by  yew-trees,  which  seemed  almost  coeval 
with  itself.  Its  tall  Gothic  spire  shot  up  lightly  from 
among  them,  with  rooks  and  crows  generally  wheeling 
about  it.  I  was  seated  there  one  still  sunny  morning, 
watching  two  laborers  who  were  digging  a  grave.  They 
had  chosen  one  of  the  most  remote  and  neglected  corners 
of  the  churchyard,  where,  by  the  number  of  nameless 
graves  around,  it  would  appear  that  the  indigent  and 
friendless  were  huddled  into  the  earth.  I  was  told  that 
the  new-made  grave  Avas  for  the  only  son  of  a  poor  widow. 
While  I  was  meditating  on  the  distinctions  of  worldly 
rank,  which  extend  thus  down  to  the  very  dust,  the  toll 
of  the  bell  announced  the  approach  of  the  funeral.  They 
were  the  obsequies  of  poverty,  with  which  pride  had  noth 
ing  to  do.  A  coffin  of  the  plainest  materials,  without  pall 
or  other  covering,  was  borne  by  some  of  the  villagers.  The 
sexton  walked  before  with  an  air  of  cold  indifference. 
There  were  no  mock  mourners  in  the  trappings  of  affected 
woe,  but  there  was  one  real  mourner  who  feebly  tottered 
after  the  corpse.  It  was  the  aged  mother  of  the  deceased 
—  the  poor  old  woman  whom  I  had  seen  seated  on  the 
steps  of  the  altar.  She  was  supported  by  an  humble  friend, 
who  was  endeavoring  to  comfort  her.  A  few  of  the 
neighboring  poor  had  joined  the  train,  and  some  children 
of  the  village  were  running  hand  in  hand,  now  shouting 
.with  unthinking  mirth,  and  now  pausing  to  gaze,  with 
childish  curiosity,  on  the  grief  of  the  mourner. 


EXTRACTS.  19 

As  the  funeral  train  approached  the  grave,  the  parson 
issued  from  the  church  porch,  arrayed  in  the  surplice,  with 
prayer-book  in  hand,  attended  by  the  clerk.  The  service, 
however,  was  a  mere  act  of  charity.  The  deceased,  had 
been  destitute,  and  the  survivor  was  penniless.  It  was 
shuffled  through,  therefore,  in  form,  but  coldly  and  unfeel 
ingly.  The  well-fed  priest  moved  but  a  few  steps  from 
the  church  door ;  his  voice  could  scarcely  be  heard  at  the 
grave ;  and  never  did  I  hear  the  funeral  service,  that  sub 
lime  and  touching  ceremony,  turned  into  such  a  frigid 
mummery  of  words. 

I  approached  the  grave.  The  coffin  was  placed  on  the 
ground.  On  it  were  inscribed  the  name  and  age  of  the 
.deceased  —  "George  Somers,  aged  26  years."  The  poor 
mother  had  been  assisted  to  kneel  down  at  the  head  of 
it.  Her  withered  hands  were  clasped,  as  if  in  prayer  ; 
but  I  could  perceive,  by  a  feeble  rocking  of  the  body, 
and  a  convulsive  motion  of  the  lips,  that  she  was  gazing 
on  the  last  relics  of  her  son  with  the  yearnings  of  a 
mother's  heart. 

Preparations  were  made  to  deposit  the  body  in  the  earth. 
There  was  that  bustling  stir,  which  breaks  so  harshly  on 
the  feelings  of  grief  and  affection ;  directions  given  in  the 
cold  tones  of  business ;  the  striking  of  spades  into  the  sand 
and  gravel,  which,  at  the  grave  of  those  we  love,  is  of  all 
sounds  the  most  withering.  The  bustle  around  seemed  to 
waken  the  mother  from  a  wretched  reverie.  She  raised  her 
glazed  eyes,  and  looked  about  with  a  faint  wildness.  As 
the  men  approached  with  cords  to  lower  the  coffin  into  the 
grave,  she  wrung  her  hands,  and  broke  into  an  agony  of 
grief.  The  poor  woman  who  attended  her  took  her  by  the 
arm,  endeavoring  to  raise  her  from  the  earth,  and  to  whis- 


20  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

per  something  like  consolation —  "  Nay,  now  —  nay,  now  — 
don't  take  it  so  sorely  to  heart."     She  could  only  shake 
her  head,  and  wring  her  hands,  as  one  not  to  be  comforted. 

As  they  lowered  the  body  into  the  earth,  the  creaking 
of  the  cords  seemed  to  agonize  her ;  but  when,  on  some 
accidental  obstruction,  there  was  a  jostling  of  the  coffin, 
all  the  tenderness  of  the  mother  burst  forth ;  as  if  any 
harm  could  come  to  him  who  was  far  beyond  the  reach 
of  worldly  suffering. 

I  could  see  no  more  —  my  heart  swelled  into  my  throat 
—  my  eyes  filled  with  tears  —  I  felt  as  if  I  were  acting 
a  barbarous  part  in  standing  by  and  gazing  idly  on  this 
scene  of  maternal  anguish.  I  wandered  to  another  part 
of  the  churchyard,  where  I  remained  until  the  funeralt 

train  had  dispersed. 

THE  SKETCH-BOOK. 

I  MUST  not  omit  to  mention  that  this  village  is  the  para 
dise  of  cows  as  well  as  men.  .  .  .  The  same  scrupulous 
cleanliness  which  pervades  everything  else,  is  manifest 
in  the  treatment  of  this  venerated  animal.  She  is  not 
permitted  to  perambulate  the  place ;  but  in  winter,  when 
she  forsakes  the  rich  pasture,  a  well-built  house  is  pro- 
vided  for  her,  well  painted,  and  maintained  in  the  most 
perfect  order.  Her  stall  is  of  ample  dimensions,  the 
floor  is  scrubbed  and  polished  ;  her  hide  is  daily  curried 
and  brushed  and  sponged  to  her  heart's  content,  and  her 
tail  is  daintily  tucked  up  to  the  ceiling,  and  decorated 
with  a  ribbon.  BROEK  ;  on,  THE  DUTCH  PARADISE. 

THE  trumpets  were  about  sounding  for  the  encounter, 
when  the  herald  announced  the  arrival  of  a  strange 
knight ;  and  Ahmed  rode  into  the  field. 


EXTRACTS.  21 

A  steel  helmet  studded  with  gems  rose  above  his  tur 
ban  ;  his  cuirass,  was  embossed  with  gold ;  his  cimeter 
and  dagger  were  of  the  workmanship  of  Fez,  and  flamed 
with  precious  stones. 

A  round  shield  was  at  his  shoulder,  and  in  his  hand 
he  bore  the  lance  of  charmed  virtue.  The  caparison  of 
his  Arabian  steed  was  richly  embroidered  and  swept  the 
ground,  and  the  proud  animal  pranced  and  snuffed  the  air, 
and  neighed  with  joy  at  once  more  beholding  the  array 
of  arms. 

The  lofty  and  graceful  demeanor  of  the  prince  struck 
every  eye,  and  when  his  appellation  was  announced,  "  The 
Pilgrim  of  Love,"  a  universal  flutter  and  agitation  pre 
vailed  among  the  fair  dames  in  the  galleries. 

THE  ALHAMBKA  :  Legend  of  Prince  Ahmed  Al  Kamel. 

SIR    WALTER  SCOTT  AND  HIS  DOGS. 

AFTER  my  return  from  Melrose  Abbey,  Scott  proposed 
a  ramble  to  show  me  something  of  the  surrounding  coun 
try.  As  we  sallied  forth,  every  dog  in  the  establishment 
turned  out  to  attend  us.  There  was  an  old  stag-hound, 
Maida,  that  I  have  already  mentioned,  a  noble  animal, 
and  a  great  favorite  of  Scott's ;  and  Hamlet,  the  black 
greyhound,  a  wild,  thoughtless  youngster,  not  yet  arrived 
to  the  years  of  discretion ;  and  Finette,  a  beautiful  setter, 
with  soft  silken  hair,  long  pendent  ears,  and  a  mild  eye, 
the  parlor  favorite.  When  in  front  of  the  house  we  were 
joined  by  a  superannuated  greyhound,  who  came  from 
the  kitchen  wagging  his  tail,  and  was  cheered  by  Scott 
as  an  old  friend  and  comrade. 

In  our  walks,  Scott  would  frequently  pause  in  conver 
sation  to  notice  his  dogs  and  speak  to  them,  as  if  rational 


22  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

companions ;  and,  indeed,  there  appears  to  be  a  vast  deal 
of  rationality  in  these  faithful  attendants  on  man,  derived 
from  their  close  intimacy  with  him.  Maida  deported  him 
self  with  a  gravity  becoming  his  age  and  size,  and  seemed 
to  consider  himself  called  upon  to  preserve  a  great  degree 
of  dignity  and  decorum  in  our  society.  As  he  jogged 
along  a  little  distance  ahead  of  us,  the  young  dogs  would 
gambol  about  him,  leap  on  his  neck,  worry  at  his  ears,  and 
endeavor  to  tease  him  into  a  frolic.  The  old  dog  would 
keep  on  for  a  long  time  with  imperturbable  solemnity,  now 
and  then  seeming  to  rebuke  the  wantonness  of  his  young 
companions.  At  length  he  would  make  a  sudden  turn, 
seize  one  of  them,  and  tumble  him  in  the  dust ;  then 
giving  a  glance  at  us,  as  much  as  to  say,  "You  see,  gen 
tlemen,  I  can't  help  giving  away  to  this  nonsense,"  would 
resume  his  gravity  and  jog  on  as  before. 

Scott  amused  himself  with  these  peculiarities.  "  I 
make  no  doubt,"  said  he,  "  when  Maida  is  alone  with 
these  young  dogs,  he  throws  gravity  aside,  and  plays  the 
boy  as  much  as  any  of  them ;  but  he  is  ashamed  to  do 
so  in  our  company,  and  seems  to  say,  'Ha'  done  with 
your  nonsense,  youngsters ;  what  will  the  laird  and  the 
other  gentleman  think  of  me  if  I  give  away  to  such 
foolery?'"  .  .  . 

Scott  amused  himself  with  the  peculiarities  of  another 
of  his  dogs,  a  little  shamefaced  terrier  with  large  glassy 
eyes,  one  of  the  most  sensitive  little  bodies  to  insult  and 
indignity  in  the  world.  If  he  ever  whipped  him,  he  said, 
the  little  fellow  would  sneak  off  and  hide  himself  from 
the  light  of  day  in  a  lumber-garret,  whence  there  was 
no  drawing  him  forth  but  by  the  sound  of  the  chopping- 
knife,  as  if  chopping  up  his  victuals,  when  he  would  steal 


EXTRACTS.  28 

forth  with  humbled  and  downcast  look,  but  would  skulk 
away  again  if  any  one  regarded  him. 

While  we  were  discussing  the  humors  and  peculiarities 
of  our  canine  companions,  some  object  provoked  their 
spleen,  and  produced  a  sharp  and  petulant  barking  from 
the  smaller  fry,  but  it  was  some  time  before  Maida  was 
sufficiently  aroused  to  ramp  forward  two  or  three  bounds, 
and  join  in  the  chorus  with  a  deep-mouthed  bow-wow  ! 

It  was  but  a  transient  outbreak,  and  he  returned  in 
stantly,  wagging  his  tail,  and  looking  dubiously  in  his 
master's  face ;  uncertain  whether  he  would  censure  or 
applaud. 

"  Aye,  aye,  old  boy ! "  cried  Scott,  "  you  have  done  won 
ders.  You  have  shaken  the  Eildon  hills  with  your  roar 
ing;  you  may  now  lay  by  your  artillery  for  the  rest  of 
the  day.  Maida  is  like  the  great  gun  at  Constantinople," 
he  continued;  "it  takes  so  long  to  get  it  ready  that  the 
small  guns  can  fire  off  a  dozen  times  first,  but  when  it 
does  go  off  it  plays  the  very  d 1."  .  .  . 

At  dinner,  Scott  had  laid  by  his  half-rustic  dress,  and 
appeared  clad  in  black.  The  girls,  too,  in  completing 
their  toilet,  had  twisted  in  their  hair  the  sprigs  of  purple 
heather  which  they  had  gathered  on  the  hillside,  and 
looked  all  fresh  and  blooming  from  their  breezy  walk. 

There  was  no  guest  to  dinner  but  myself.  Around  the 
table  were  two  or  three  dogs  in  attendance.  Maida,  the 
old  stag-hound,  took  his  seat  at  Scott's  elbow,  looking 
up  wistfully  in  his  master's  eye,  while  Finette,  the  pet 
spaniel,  placed,  herself  near  Mrs.  Scott,  by  whom,  I  soon 
perceived,  she  was  completely  spoiled. 

The  conversation  happening  to  turn  on  the  merits  of 
his  dogs,  Scott  spoke  with  great  feeling  and  affection 


24  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

of  his  favorite,  Camp,  who  is  depicted  by  his  side  in  the 
earlier  engravings  of  him.  He  talked  of  him  as  a  real 
friend  whom  he  had  lost ;  and  Sophia  Scott,  looking  up 
archly  into  his  face,  observed  that  papa  shed  a  few  tears 
when  poor  Camp  died.  I  may  here  mention  another  tes 
timonial  of  Scott's  fondness  for  his  dogs,  and  his  humor 
ous  mode  of  showing  it,  which  I  subsequently  met  with. 
Rambling  with  him  one  morning  about  the  grounds  adja 
cent  to  the  house,  I  observed  a  small  antique  monument, 
on  which  was  inscribed,  in  Gothic  characters,  — 

"  Cy  git  le  preux  Percy." 
(Here  lies  the  brave  Percy.) 

I  paused,  supposing  it  to  .be  the  tomb  of  some  stark  war 
rior  of  the  olden  time,  but  Scott  drew  me  on.  "Pooh!" 
he  cried,  "it's  nothing  but  one  of  the  monuments  of  my 
nonsense,  of  which  you'll  find  enough  hereabouts."  I 
learnt  afterwards  that  it  was  the  grave  of  a  favorite  grey 
hound. 

THE  CKAYON  MISCELLANY:  Abbotsford. 


REFERENCES. 


BEFERENCES. 

Biographies  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  Pierre  Irving,  R.  H.  Stoddard, 

and  David  J.  Hill. 

James  Grant  Wilson's  Bryant  and  His  Friends  (Chapter  on  Irving) . 
H.  R.  Haweis's  American  Humorists. 
H.  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 
Irvingiana;  a  Memorial  of  Washington  Irving. 
Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  V. 
Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  I.  chap.  vii. 
Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 
Chambers's  Cyclopsedia  of  English  Literature. 
Duyckinck's  Cyclopsedia  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  I. 
R.  W.  Griswold's  Prose  Writers  of  America. 
Alliboiie's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 
Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 
Lippincott's  Biographical  Dictionary. 
Text-hooks  on  American  Literature.     (Beers;    Hawthorne  and  Lem- 

mon ;  Morgan ;  Underwood ;  Tuckerman ;  Cleveland.) 
Report  of  the  Commemoration  of  Irving's  Hundredth  Birthday.     (By 

the  Washington  Irving  Association,  Tarrytown.) 
Harper's  Magazine.    March,  1860  (Article  by  Thackeray).     February, 

1862.     April,   1876   (Illustrated).     April,   1883  (Portrait  by  Stuart 

Newton).     September,  1883. 
The    Century  Magazine.    May,  1887  ("  Irving  at  Home,"  by  Clarence 

Cook). 
The  Atlantic  Monthly.    November,  1860.    June,  1864  (Article  by  Donald 

G.  Mitchell). 

The  Critic.    Irving  Number.    March  31,  1883. 

Bryant's  Address  on  Irving  before  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 
Longfellow's  Address  on  Irving  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical 

Society. 
Chappel's  Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Americans.    Vol.  II. 


20  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 


LIFE   AND   WOKKS. 

NOTE.  —  The  two  are  intimately  connected. 

April  3,  1783. 
Nov.  28,  1859. 

Father. 

Scotch,  from  the  Orkneys.  Descended  from  the  armor-bearer 
of  Robert  Bruce.  Officer  on  a  British  packet.  Strict  dis 
ciplinarian.  Blue  Presbyterian.  Thoroughly  patriotic 
through  the  American  Revolution. 

Mother. 

English.  William  Irving  met  her  when  in  port.  Gentle,  cheer 
ful,  sympathetic.  All  the  children  adopted  their  mother's 
religion,  Episcopacy.  Washington  was  confirmed  without 
his  father's  knowledge. 

The  family  were  friends  with  both  the  Dutch  and  the  English 
residents  of  New  York  City. 

Born  the  year  in  which  the  treaty  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  was  signed.  ( Irving' s  diplomatic  and  literary 
careers  cemented  the  union  between  the  countries.) 

On  William  Street,  New  York,  midway  between  Fulton  and  Joy 
Streets.  No  trace  of  birthplace  left. 

New  York  then  a  city  of  but  twenty-three  thousand  inhabitants. 

Youngest  of  eleven  children. 

Name  and  Blessing  of  George  Washington. 

"That  blessing  has  attended  me  through  life." 

Youth. 

Puritan  home-training.  "  I  was  led  to  believe  that  everything 
that  was  pleasant  was  wicked."  His  mischievous  propen 
sities  caused  his  father  much  anxiety. 

Education. 

Desultory.     A  little  Latin  and  music. 


LIFE  AND    WORKS.  27 

"  In  school  he  feasted  on  travels  and  tales,  but  hated  arithmetic. 

He  wrote  compositions  for  boys  who,  in  return,  worked  his 

sums  for  him." 
Not  sent  to  Columbia  College,  as  his  brothers  were,  because  of 

his  delicate  health  and  dislike  of  study. 

Early  Books. 

Sindbad  the   Sailor,  Giilliver''s  Travels,  Robinson  Crusoe,  Pil~ 
griin's  Progress. 

Studies  Law  (like  Bryant,  Lowell,  and  Holmes). 

In  Judge  Hoffmann's  office,  New  York.     "A  heedless  student." 
Little  work.     Much  reading.     Becomes  enamored  of  Miss  Hoff 
mann. 

Contributes  to  The  Morning  Chronicle,  his  brother's  paper. 
Letters  on  the  drama  and  the  customs  of  New  York. 

Delicate  Health. 

Pulmonary  weakness.     An  obstacle  to  him  through  most  of  his 
life. 

Voyage  up  the  Hudson. 

(Irving  first  wrote  of  the  beauties  of  this  river.) 

Trip  to  Europe,  1804,  at  his  brothers'  expense. 
Two  years  of  absence. 
The  captain  remarked,  "  That  chap  will  go  overboard  before  we 

get  across." 

Boat  boarded  by  a  privateer. 
Saw  Nelson's  fleet  in  the  Mediterranean,  off  Messina,  ready  for 

Trafalgar. 
Rome.     Met  Washington  Allston,  and  was  almost  persuaded  to 

become  an  artist.     (He  had  a  strong  love  of  color.) 
Gay  Paris.     He  excused  his  neglect  of  home  correspondence  by 

saying,  "I  am  a  young  man  and  in  Paris." 
London.     Enjoyed  intensely  Mrs.  Siddons  and  John  Kemble. 

Resumes  Law  Studies  in  New  York,  although  feeling  "a  fatal  pro 
pensity  to  belles-lettres.'1'' 
Brilliant  social  life.     "  A  champion  at  the  tea-parties." 


28  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

Death  of  Miss  Hoffmann,  at  eighteen.     1809. 

Irving  never  recovered  from  the  effects.  (Her  Bible  and  prayer- 
book  were  always  with  him.  Her  picture  and  a  lock  of  her 
hair  were  found  at  his  death  among  his  private  papers. ) 

Miss  Hoffmann's  friend,  Eebecca  Gratz,  a  Jewess,  who  cared 
solicitously  for  Miss  Hoffmann  in  her  illness,  is  the  original 
of  Scott's  heroine  Rebecca.  Irving' s  enthusiasm  prompted 
her  creation. 

(Later  love,  Emily  Foster,  known  when  in  Dresden.) 

Writes  for  Salmagundi. 

Fortnightly  magazine.     Twenty  numbers. 

Edited  by  Irving's  brother  William,  and  J.  K.  Paulding,  Wil 
liam's  brother-in-law. 

Local  allusions.     Personal  hits.     Continuous  humor. 
"A  complete  triumph  of  local  genius." 
"The  American  Spectator."     (The  last  example  of  this  type  of 

literature.) 
"Whim- Whams  and  Opinions  of  Launcelot  Langstaff." 

Publishes  Diedrich  Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York.     1809. 

America's  earliest  literary  flower  from  native  soil. 

Begun  as  a  burlesque  of  a  hand-book  just  issued,  —  S.  L. 
Mitchill's  "A  Picture  of  New  York." 

Considered  a  veritable  history  by  some  Germans. 

Gave  offence  to  some  New  Yorkers,  but  \vas  read  and  praised  by 
all  other  Americans  and  Englishmen. 

Great  success.  Income  of  $3,000  from  it.  Scott's  appreciation. 
Advertisement  in  New  York  Evening  Post  before  its  appear 
ance  (as  Carlyle  "advertised"  before  publishing  Sartor 
Resartus}  for  "a  small  elderly  gentleman  in  black  coat 
and  cocked  hat,  who  had  left  a  MS.  behind  him  at  the 
Columbian  Hotel,  Mulberry  St." 

"A  most  excellently  jocose  history."  — WALTER  SCOTT. 

"One  of  the  few  masterpieces  of  humor." 

Trial  of  Aaron  Burr. 

Irving  held  a  semi-official  connection  with  it.  His  sympathies 
were  called  out  on  Burr's  behalf. 

Silent  Partner  in  his  brother's  business. 


LIFE  AND    WORKS.  29 

Second  European  Trip.     1815. 
Significant  time  historically. 

Bright  prospects  followed  by  depressing  experiences. 
Outings. 

Enjoys  his  sister's  home  near  Birmingham.     Becomes  acquainted 
with  Kean,  Campbell,  Moore,  Rogers,  Disraeli,  Jeffrey,  Mur 
ray.     Meets  Longfellow  in  Spain. 
Friendship  with  Scott  and  visit  to  him. 

Consult  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  and  Irving's  pleasing  essay>^ 

on  Abbotsford. 
Welcomed  everywhere  for  his  Knickerbocker  fame  and  for  his 

social  charms. 
He  imbibes  the  spirit  of  the  Romanticists. 

Financial  Reverses  of  1818,  following  several  years  of  gloom. 

Through  the  days  of  investigation  of  affairs  by  the  commis 
sioners,  Irving  sought  relief  in  studying  'day  and  night  the 
German  language. 

Declines,  in  favor  of  a  literary  profession,  the  mayoralty  of  New 
York,  a  seat  in  Congress,  and  the  secretaryship  of  the  navy 
($2,500)  under  Yan  Buren. 

The  S  ketch-Book. 

1819.     By  "  Geoffrey  Crayon." 

Written  in  England,  and  published  serially  in  America. 

Anonymous  at  first,  and  attributed  to  Scott. 

Murray,  the  publisher  and  thereafter  the  lifelong  friend  of  Ir 
ving,  brings  out  through  Scott's  influence  a  London  edition 
of  the  book,  paying  $2,400  to  Irving  for  it. 

Warm  reception  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 

"  His  Crayon  —  I  know  it  by  heart."  —  LORD  BYRON. 

Its  Motto.  —  "I  have  no  wife  nor  children,  good  nor  bad,  to 
provide  for  —  a  mere  spectator  of  other  men's  fortunes." 
(Quoted.) 

Its  Immortal  Creations. 

Rip  Van  Winkle.     (Joe   Jefferson,  the  most   famous  stage 
exponent  of   the  character.)     Compare   this  story  with 
the  German  legend  of  Frederick  Barbarossa. 
Ichabod  Crane. 


30  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

^ 

Consult  Harper's  Magazine,  September,  1883,  for  the  "  Gen 
esis  of  the  Kip  Van  Winkle  Legend." 

Bracebridge  Hall. 

The  English  Sketch-Book.     1822. 

Written   in   Paris.      Murray   paid    a   thousand   guineas   for   it 

without  seeing  the  manuscript. 

"  The  coronation  of  English  country  life."  — HAAVEIS. 
The  original,  Ashton  Hall,  is  in  the  vicinity  of  Birmingham. 
Irving  loved  England  and  the  English. 

Tales  of  a  Traveller. 

Criticised  severely,  but  contains  some  of  Irving's  best  writing. 
Secretary  of  Legation  at  Madrid.     1826-1829. 

Under  Alexander  Everett,  who  commissioned  him  to  translate 

Navarrete's    Voyages   of   Columbus,    then   just    published. 

This  led  'Irving  to  undertake  later  his  Life  of  Columbus. 
His  most  productive  literary  period. 
He  rooms  in   the  summer  of   1829  in  Lindaraja's   apartments 

in  the  Alhambra.     (The  room  is  shown  to  visitors  to  the 

palace.) 

The  Life  of  Columbus.     Three  thousand  guineas. 

Medal  (fifty  guineas)  from  George  IV.  for  historical  composi 
tion.  Its  companion  medal  was  bestowed  at  the  same  time 
on  the  historian  Ilallam. 

Clear,  judicious,  accurate.     It  still  holds  its  own,  despite  the 
wealth  of  Columbian  literature  issued  in  1893. 

The  Conquest  of  Granada  and  the  Alhambra. 

T/ie  Sjianish  Sketch-Book. 
Secretary  of  Legation  at  London.     1829-1832. 

Degree  of  D.C.L.  from  Oxford  to  Irving  in  person. 

Last  interview  with  Walter  Scott,  in  London. 

Edits  Bryant's  poems,  and  thus  secures  for  them  an  English 
public. 

Returns  to  New  York.     1832. 

Great  ovation.  Unsuccessful  attempt  to  make  a  speech  at 
a  New  York  banquet. 


LIFE  AND    WORKS.  31 

Purchase  of  "  Sunnyside."     Wolf  erf  8  lioost. 

y  A  Dutch  stone  cottage  on  the' banks  of  the  Hudson,  at  Tarry- 
town  (now  Irvington),  once  the  home  of  the  Van  Tassels. 
Cosey  and  picturesque.  Mantled  with  ivy  brought  as  a 
slip  from  Melrose  Abbey  by  Mrs.  Jane  Eenwick  (famous  in 
literature  as  "  The  Blue-Eyed  Lassie  "  of  Burns),  and  given 
to  Irving. 

Its  hospitality,  generous. 

The  household  consisted  of  the  family  of  Irving's  brother,  with 
a  number  of  nieces,  two  of  whom  still  occupy  the  home 
(1894).  Here  Irving  was  visited  by  Napoleon  III.  and  by 
Daniel  Webster. 

Its  gable-ends  hold  aloft  a  venerable  weathercock  that  once 
surmounted  the  Stadt-House  of  New  Amsterdam. 

See  illustrated  article  on  Sunnyside  in  Harper's  Magazine  for 
December,  185G,  and  Irving's  Wolferf  s  Roost. 

Travels  West,  to  become  acquainted  with  his  own  country,  after 
his  seventeen  years  of  life  in  Europe. 

Resultant  Works. 

A  Tour  on  the  Prairies.  Astoria.  The  Adventures  of  Captain 
Bonneville. 

Surrenders,  at  considerable  sacrifice,  his  plan  to  write  a  history  of 
Mexico,  when  he  learns  that  Prescott  is  at  work  on  the 
same  theme. 

Appointment  as  Minister  to  Spain.     1842.     Wholly  unsought. 

Name  proposed   by  Daniel   Webster,  then    Secretary   of  State. 
Reluctance  to  leave  his  home.     "  It  is  hard,  very,  but  I  must 

try  to  bear  it,"  he  humorously  remarked. 
Troublesome    times    in  Spain.      (Queen   Isabella   II.    and    her 

regents. ) 
Little  literary  activity.     Resigns  in  1846. 

Life  of  Washington.     Five  volumes.     1855-1859. 
The  outcome  of  thirty  years  of  thought. 
A  standard  authority. 


32  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

Other  Biographies. 

Oliver  Goldsmith.     His  most  spontaneous  and  fascinating  ono. 

"  One  of  the  best  biographies  in  the  whole  range  of  English 

literature." 

Mahomet.     Not  a  success. 
Columbus.     (See  preceding  note.) 

Last  Years  at  Tarrytown.     Thirteen. 

Putnam,  of  New  York,  now  becomes  his  publisher  and  friend. 
A  happy,  kindly,  cheerful  old  age. 

Death,    from    Heart    Disease,   the   same    year    with    Prescott    and 
Macaulay. 

Buried  at  Sleepy  Hollow,  Tarrytown. 

(As  Emerson  and  Thoreau,  in  Concord's  "Sleepy  Hollow.") 
Lies  by  the  side  of  his  mother. 

Second  tombstone  much  mutilated;  the  first  was  wholly  de 
stroyed  by  relic-seekers. 

Read  Longfellow's  sonnet,  "In  the  Churchyard  at  Tarrytown." 
See  article  on  Sleepy  Hollow  in  Munsey's  Magazine  for  June, 
1892. 

First  Biographer. 

Pierre  Irving,  his  nephew. 

"  One  million  copies  have  been  sold  in  America,  and  as  many 
more  elsewhere." 

Character. 

"  His  character  is  perfectly  transparent." 

"Genial,  sunny,  modest,  humorous,  sensitive."  ("One  con 
demning  whisper  sounded  louder  in  his  ears  than  a  thou 
sand  plaudits.")  Fond  of  society,  amiable,  and  of  gentle 
manners.  A  charming  talker.  Popular,  but  not  a  speech- 
maker.  Very  ready  to  acknowledge  merit  in  others.  "  He 
had  a  boundless  capacity  for  good-fellowship."  His  com 
pany  was  sought  by  kings  and  queens. 

"  He  was  thoroughly  a  gentleman,  not  merely  in  external  man 
ners  and  look,  but  to  the  innermost  fibres  and  core  of  his 
heart." — EMILY  FOSTER. 


LIFE  AND    WORKS.  38 

See  his  account  of  himself  in  the  Preface  to  the  Sketch-Hook, 
and  Lowell's  verses  on  him  in  the  Fable. 

Appearance  and  Voice. 

Medium  height.    Somewhat  stout.    Dark  gray  eyes  with  delicate 

eyebrows;  handsome  straight  nose;  shapely  head.     Wore  a 

dark  brown  wig.     Winning  smile. 
"He  seemed  to  have   stepped   out  of  his  own  books."  —  G. 

W.  Cuims. 
Well-modulated  voice. 


34  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 


APPELLATIONS. 

A  SPONTANEOUS  OPTIMIST. 

THE  BEST  BELOVED  AMONG  AMERICAN  AUTHORS. 

THE  FATHER  OF  AMERICAN  LETTERS. 

THE  EARLIEST  CLASSIC  WRITER  OF  AMERICA. 

THE  MORNING  STAR  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 

SOCIETY'S  DARLING. 

THE  DUTCH  HERODOTUS. 

THE  AMERICAN  GOLDSMITH. 

THE  ADDISON  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 

THE  FIRST  AMBASSADOR  SENT  BY  THE  NEW  WORLD  OF  LETTERS 

TO  THE  OLD.  —  Thackeray. 
THE  GENTLE  HUMORIST. 
THE  SECOND  AMERICAN  TO  MAKE  LITERATURE  A  PROFESSION. 

(Charles  Brockden  Brown  was  the  first.) 
A  MEDIATOR  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA. 
OUR  FIRST  PICTURESQUE  TOURIST. 

THE  GENIAL  CONSERVATIVE  IN  LITERATURE  AND  LIFE. 
THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AMERICAN  HUMORISTS. 
THE  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


PSEUDONYMS. 

JONATHAN  OLDSTYLE,  The  New  York  Morning  Chronicle. 

LAUNCELOT  LANGSTAFF,  Salmagundi. 

DIEDRICH  KNICKERBOCKER,  Historian  of  New  York. 

FRAY  ANTONIA  AGAPIDA,  Chronicler  of  Granada. 

GEOFFREY  CRAYON,  The  Sketch-Book. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  35 


MISCELLANEOUS    NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Irving. 

Scott  said  to  one  of  his  friends,  "When  you  see  Tom  Campbell, 
tell  him  that  I  have  to  thank  him  for  making  me  known  to 
Mr.  Washington  Irving,  who  is  one  of  the  best  and  pleasant- 
est  acquaintances  I  have  made  this  many  a  day." 

"  His  writings  are  my  delight."  —  BYRON. 

"For  fifty  years,  Irving  charmed  and  instructed  the  American  peo 
ple,  and  held  the  foremost  place  in  their  affections." — WARNEK. 

"Nothing  bitter,  morbid,  or  sensational  ever  came  from  him."  — 
HAWTHORNE  and  LEMMON. 

"  The  mild  and  beautiful  genius  of  Mr.  Irving  was  the  morning 
star  that  led  up  the  march  of  our  heavenly  host." — ALEXAN 
DER  EVERETT. 

"  Irving's  genius  was  what  in  the  old  English  phrase  would  have 
been  called  sauntering.  It  cast  the  glamor  of  idlesse  over  our 
sharp,  positive,  and  busy  American  life.  .  .  .  While  one  lurid 
letter  spells  Puritan,  and  the  keen  laughter  of  Hosea  Biglow 
nails  fast  the  counterfeit  American,  still  Rip  Van  Winkle 
lounges  idly  by,  and  the  vagabond  of  the  Hudson  is  an  un- 
wasting  figure  of  the  imagination,  the  earliest,  constant,  gentlest 
satirist  of  American  life."  —  GEORGE  W.  CURTIS. 

Lowell's  verses  on  Irving  in  his  Fable  for  Critics. 

Longfellow's  sonnet  In  the  Churchyard  at  Tarrytown. 

Consult  Irvingiana:  a  Memorial  to  Washington  Irving. 
His  Literary  Style. 

Fluent,  graceful,  picturesque. 

"His  language  was  full  of  grace;   his  sympathies  were  true;  his 

humor,  genuine  and  abiding." 
Sale  of  Works. 

Six  hundred  thousand  volumes  were  sold  in  his  lifetime.  From 
1859  to  1887  the  average  annual  sale  was  thirty  thousand. 

His  literary  income  was  more  than  $36,000. 
Illustrated  Editions. 

The  Darro  Edition  of  The  Alhambra.  1891.  G.  P.  Putman.  ($6.00.) 
Illuminated  cover  and  page  borders.  Thirty  photogravures. 


36  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

Rip  Van  Winkle.     1893.    Macmillan.     (#2.00.)     George  H.  Bough- 
ton,  artist. 
Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow.    G.  P.  Putman. 

Memorials. 

Busts  in  Central  Park,  N.Y.,  and  Prospect  Park,  Brooklyn. 
Irving  Memorial  Church  at  Tarrytowii. 
Edition  of  his  Life  and  Works. 

Formation  of  the  Irving  Society  at  Tarrytown,  1883. 
First  American  author  thus  honored. 
Memorial  volume  published  by  the  society. 

Donald  G.  Mitchell,  the  orator  of  the  Centennial  Celebration  of 
his  birth. 

His  Admiration  for  Women. 

"I  am  superstitious  in  my  admiration  for  them,  and  like  to  walk  in 
a  perpetual  delusion,  decking  them  out  as  divinities.  I  thank 
no  one  to  undeceive  me,  and  to  prove  that  they  are  mere 
mortals." 

Irving's  Worldly  Wisdom. 

"  When  I  cannot  get  a  dinner  to  suit  my  taste,  I  get  a  taste  to  suit 
my  dinner." 

Anecdotes  of  interest  concerning  Irving. 

See  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors,  Warner's  Life  of 
Irvine/,  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott. 

~~L  Selected  Readings. 

The  Sketch-Hook.  Rip  Van  Winkle.  ("One  of  those  strokes  of 
genius  that  re-create  the  world  and  clothe  it  with  the  unfading 
hues  of  romance.")  The  Spectre  Bridegroom,  Rural  Funerals, 
Westminster  Abbey,  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  Stratford- 
on-Avon,  Little  Britain,  The  Pride  of  the  Village. 

The  Alhambra.  The  Court  of  Lions,  Legends  of  The  Three  Beauti 
ful  Princesses,  The  Rose  of  the  Alhambra,  The  Moor's  Legacy, 
The  Two  Discreet  Statues,  The  Arabian  Astrologer,  Governor 
Manco  and  the  Soldiers. 

Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York.  Governor  Van  Twiller 
(Bk.  III.,  ch.  i.) ;  How  the  Streets  were  made,  (Bk.  III.,  ch. 
iii.);  Military  Reception  (Bk.  VI.,  ch.  ii.). 

The  Crayon  Miscellany.    Newstead  Abbey,  Abbotsford. 

Bracebridge  Hall.  The  Stout  Gentleman,  (Greatly  admired  by 
Dickens.) 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  37 

Columbus.      Landing  of  Columbus  in   the  New  .World   (Vol.  I  , 

Bk.  IV.). 
Life  of   Washington.     Washington's  Farewell  Address   (Vol.   V., 

chap.  xxx.). 

'  For  nearly  half  a  century,  Niagara  Falls  and  Washington  Irving  were 
the  two  American  subjects  most  interesting  to  Englishmen." 

'  Irving  attributed  the  success  of  his  books  in  England  to  the  astonish 
ment  of  Englishmen  that  an  American  could  write  good  English." 

'  Irving's  imagination,  like  that  of  Spenser  and  Scott,  was  fascinated 
by  the  past  and  its  associations." 

'  His  pen  wras  the  first  to  give  to  literature  the  Dutch  legends  of  the 
New  World  and  the  romances  of  the  Moors  in  Spain." 

1  Irving  regarded  life  purely  from  the  literary  point  of  view." 

'  There  was  never  any  one  who  so  carried  the  whole  of  himself  in  each 
of  his  writings."  — HAWEIS. 

;  Irving's  first  literary  work  was  a  play,  written  for  an  entertainment 
at  the  house  of  a  friend." 

1  Before  Irving  there  was  no  laughter  in  the  land." 

;  The  influence  of  his  writings  is  sweet  and  wholesome." 

'•  His  writings  are  the  literature  of  leisure  and  retrospection ;  and  already 
Irving's  gentle  elaboration,  the  refined  and  slightly  artificial  beauty 
of  his  style,  and  his  persistently  genial  and  sympathetic  attitiide, 
have  begun  to  pall  upon  readers  who  demand  a  more  nervous  and 
accentuated  kind  of  writing."  —  BEERS. 


JAMES    FENIMORE    COOPER. 


JAMES   FENIMORE   COOPER. 

NOVELIST  AND  CONTROVERSIALIST. 


EXTRACTS. 

SCENE  BETWEEN  MAJOR  DUNWOODIE  AND  HARVEY 
BIRCH. 

"  IF  I  am  to  be  murdered,  fire  !  I  will  never  become 
your  prisoner." 

"  No,  Major  Dunwoodie,"  said  Birch,  lowering  his 
musket ;  "  it  is  neither  my  intention  to  capture  nor  to 
slay." 

"  What  then  would  you  have,  mysterious  being  ?  "  said 
Dunwoodie,  hardly  able  to  persuade  himself  that  the  form 
he  saw  was  not  a  creature  of  the  imagination. 

"  Your  good  opinion,"  answered  the  pedler  with  emo 
tion  ;  "  I  would  wish  all  good  men  to  judge  me  with 
lenity." 

"To  you  it  must  be  indifferent  what  may  be  the 
judgment  of  men  ;  for  you  seem  to  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  their  sentence." 

"  God  spares  the  lives  of  his  servants  to  his  own  time," 
said  the  pedler  solemnly  ;  "  a  few  hours  ago  I  was  your 
prisoner,  and  threatened  with  the  gallows  ;  now  you  are 
mine ;  but,  Major  Dunwoodie,  you  are  free.  There  are 
men  abroad  that  would  treat  you  less  kindly.  Of  what 

41 


42  JAMES   FEN1MORE   COOPER. 

service  would  that  sword  be  to  you  against  my  weapon 
and  a  steady  hand  ?  Take  the  advice  of  one  who  has 
never  harmed  you,  and  who  never  will.  Do  not  trust 
yourself  in  the  skirt  of  any  wood,  unles's  in  company  and 
mounted." 

"  And  have  you  comrades,  who  have  assisted  you  to 
escape,  and  who  are  less  generous  than  yourself  ? " 

"  No  —  no ;  I  am  alone  truly  ;  none  know  me  but  my 
God  and  him." 

"  And  who  ? "  asked  the  major,  with  an  interest  he 
could  not  control. 

"  None,"  continued  the  pedler,  recovering  his  com 
posure.  "  But  such  is  not  your  case,  Major  Dunwoodie ; 
you  are  young  and  happy ;  there  are  those  who  are  dear 
to  you,  and  such  are  not  far  away ;  danger  is  near  them 
you  love  most  —  danger  within  and  without.  Double  your 
watchfulness,  strengthen  your  patrols,  and  be  silent.  With 
your  opinion  of  me,  should  I  tell  you  more,  you  would 
never  suspect  an  ambush.  But  remember  and  guard 
them  you  love  best." 

The  pedler  discharged  the  musket  in  the  air,  and  threw 
it  at  the  feet  of  the  astonished  auditor.  When  surprise 
and  smoke  allowed  Dunwoodie  to  look  again  on  the  rock 
where  he  had  stood,  the  spot  was  vacant. 

THE  SPY. 

SCENE  BETWEEN  MOHEGAN  AND  MISS   TEMPLE. 

"  DAUGHTER,  the  Great  Spirit  made  your  father  with 
a  white  skin,  and  he  made  mine  with  a  red ;  but  he 
colored  both  their  hearts  with  blood.  When  young,  it 
is  swift  and  warm ;  but  when  old,  it  is  still  and  cold. 
Is  there  difference  below  the  skin  ?  No.  Once  John 


EXTRACTS.  43 

had  a  woman.  She  was  the  mother  of  so  many  sons,"  - 
he  raised  his  hand  with  three  fingers  elevated,  — "  and 
she  had  daughters  that  would  have  made  the  young 
Delawares  happy.  She  was  kind,  daughter,  and  what  I 
said  she  did.  (^  You  have  different  fashions ;  but  do  you 
think  John  did  not  love  the  wife  of  his  youth  —  the 
mother  of  his  children  ?  "  \ 

"  And  what  has  become  of  your  family,  John,  —  your 
wife  and  your  children  ? "  asked  Elizabeth,  touched  by 
the  Indian's  manner. 

"  Where  is  the  ice  that  covered  the  great  spring  ?  It 
is  all  melted,  and  gone  with  the  waters.  John  has  lived 
till  all  his  people  have  left  him  for  the  land  of  spirits ; 
his  time  has  come,  and  he  is  ready." 

Mohegan  dropped  his  head  in  his  blanket  and  sat  in 
silence.  Miss  Temple  knew  not  what  to  say.  -  She  wished 
to  draw  the  thoughts  of  the  old  warrior  from  his  gloomy 
recollections ;  but  there  was  a  dignity  in  his  sorrow  and 
in  his  fortitude  that  repressed  her  efforts  to  speak.  After 
a  long  pause,  however,  she  renewed  the  discourse  by 
asking,  — 

"  Where  is  Leatherstocking,  John  ?  I  have  brought 
this  canister  of  powder  at  his  request ;  but  he  is  nowhere 
to  be  seen.  Will  you  take  charge  of  it  and  see  it 
delivered  ?  " 

The  Indian  raised  his  head  slowly,  and  looked  earnestly 
at  the  gift,  which  she  put  into  his  hand. 

"  This  is  the  great  enemy  of  my  nation.  Without  this 
when  could  the  white  men  drive  the  Delawares  ? 
Daughter,  the  Great  Spirit  gave  your  fathers  to  know 
how  to  make  guns  and  powder,  that  they  might  sweep 
the  Indians  from  the  land.  There  will  soon  be  no  red- 


44  JAMES   FEN1NOEE   COOPER. 

skin  in  the  country.  When  John  is  gone,  the  last  will 
leave  these  hills,  and  his  family  will  be  dead."  The 
aged  warrior  stretched  his  body  forward,  leaning  an 
elbow  on  his  knee,  and  appeared  to  be  taking  a  parting 
look  at  the  objects  of  the  vale,  which  were  still  visible 
through  the  misty  atmosphere ;  though  the  air  seemed 
to  thicken  at  each  moment  around  Miss  Temple,  Avho 
became  conscious  of  an  increased  difficulty  of  respiration. 
The  eye  of  Mohegan  changed  gradually  from  its  sor 
rowful  expression  to  a  look  of  wildness  that  might  be 
supposed  to  border  on  the  inspiration  of  a  prophet,  as 
he  continued,  "  But  he  will  go  to  the  country  where 
his  fathers  have  met.  The  game  shall  be  plenty  as  the 
fish  in  the  lakes.  No  woman  shall  cry  for  meat ;  no 
Mingo  can  ever  come.  The  chase  shall  be  for  children ; 
and  all  just  red-men  shall  live  together  as  brothers." 

THE  PIONEERS. 

"WHEN  the  tide  falls,"  Dillon  said,  in  a  voice  that 
betrayed  the  agony  of  fear,  though  his  words  expressed 
the  renewal  of  hope,  "we  shall  be  able  to  walk  to  land." 

"There  was  One,  and  only  One,  to  whose  feet  the  waters 
were  the  same  as  a  dry  deck,"  returned  the  cockswain ; 
"and  none  but  such  as  have  His  power  will  ever  be  able 
to  walk  from  these  rocks  to  the  sands."  The  old  seaman 
paused,  and  turning  his  eyes,  which  exhibited  a  mingled 
expression  of  disgust  and  compassion,  on  his  companion, 
he  added,  with  reverence :  "  Had  you  thought  more  of 
Him  in  fair  weather,  your  case  would  be  less  to  be  pitied 

in  this  tempest." 

THE  PILOT. 


REFERENCES.  45 


REFERENCES. 

Thomas  R.  Lounsbury's  James  Fenimore  Cooper. 

J.  G.  Wilson's  Bryant  and  His  Friends  (Chapter  on  Cooper). 

Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  II.  chap.  ix. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  V. 

Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 

G'hambcrs's  Cyclopaedia  of  English  Literature. 

Griswold's  Prose  Writers  of  America. 

Poe's  Literati. 

Bryant's  Memorial  Address  on  Cooper  (see  Bryant's  Prose  Works). 

Brander  Matthews's  Americanisms  and  Briticisms. 

Duyckinck's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  I. 

Chappcl's  Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Americans.    Vol.  II. 

Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 

Text-books  on  American  Literature. 

The   Atlantic  Monthly.     February,  1887   ("A  Glance  Backward,"  by 

Susan  Fenimore  Cooper). 
The  North  American  Review.    July,  1895. 
Poole's  Index  to  Periodical  Literature,  with  Supplements. 
T.  S.  Livermore's  History  of  Cooperstown. 


46  JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER. 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

September  15,  17  SO. 
September  14,  1851. 

Descent. 

From  James  Cooper,  of  Stratford-on-Avon  (Shakespeare's  birth 
place).     Quaker  family. 

Father. 

English.      A   judge.      Cultured,    wealthy,    energetic.      Several 
times  a  Representative  in  Congress,  and  a  leading  Federalist. 

Mother. 

Of   Swedish   blood.     A   Fenimore,    whose   ancestors   had   lived 
for  a  century  in  Burlington,  N.  J. 

Birth. 

In  Burlington,  N.  J.     (The  youngest  but  one  of  twelve  children, 
many  of  whom  died  in  infancy.) 

Removal. 

When  a  year  old,  to  the  western  frontier  of  New  York  State. 
The  founding  by  his  father,   William  Cooper,  of  Cooperstown, 

on  Otsego  Lake.     (See  notes  under  "Cooperstown.") 
A  family  of  fifteen  live  six  years  in  a  log  house. 
Building  of  the  "  Hall,"  the  manor-house  of  the  town. 
Life    in   contact   with   Indians,    primeval    forests,    rivers,   and 

lakes. 

As  a  Youth. 

"  Brave,  blithe-hearted,  impetuous,  most  generous  and  upright." 

Education. 

"The  wilderness  was  his  earliest  and  most  potent  teacher." 
Fitted   for  college   in   Albany   with   the   rector   of   St.    Peter's 

Church,    a   man   thoroughly   English   in   his   training    and 

ideas. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  47 

Three  Yearn  <it   Y<de  Collec/e. 

(Entered  at  thirteen  years  of  age. ) 

Youngest  student,  save  the  poet  Hillhouse,  in  his  class. 

His  class,  he  said,  was  Yale's  first  Freshman  class  able  to 

scan  Latin. 
Dismissed  for  pranks.     His  father  defended  his  course. 

Midshipman  and  Lieutenant.     Several  years. 

Gained  material,  to  be  worked  later  into  his  sea  novels. 

Marriage. 

In  1811,  to  Miss  De  Lancey,  sister  to  the  Bishop  of  Western  New 

York.     The  De  Lanceys  were  Tories.     Leaves  the  navy,  and 

loses  the  opportunity  of  taking  an  active  part  in  the  War 

of  1812. 
Settles  for  a  time  in  Westchester  County,  N.  Y.,  the  home  of 

the  De  Lanceys. 
A  serene  family  life,  although  his  literary  career  was  a  stormy 

one. 

A  "Gentleman  Farmer"  for  Ten  Years. 

Accidentally  Takes  Up  Literature  as  a  Profession. 

When  reading  an  English  novel  aloud  to  his  wife,  he  exclaimed, 

"I  believe  I  could  do  better  myself." 
Result.        Precaution,  an  English  society  novel. 
Not  a  success. 

Reviewed   somewhat   favorably  in   England,   however,  and 
not  suspected  to  be  of  American  origin. 

Publication  of  The  Spy;   A  Tale  of   the   Neutral  Ground.     1821. 
Brought  out  at  his  own  expense,  since  no  publisher  was  willing 

to  risk  an  American  novel  on  an  American  theme. 
Cooper,  unlike  Scott,  had  to  create  his  own  public. 
Made  its  author  famous  in  both  Europe  and  America. 
Determined  Cooper's  career. 
Translated  into  many  languages,    including  Arabic,   Russian, 

Norwegian,  and  even  Persian. 

Rapid  Succession  of  Other  Works. 

Eleven  books  published  between  1821  and  1830. 


48  JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER. 

"  Cooper's  prodigal  pen  was  a  mark  of  the  English  fiction  of 
the  period.  .  .  .  Labor  was  hardly  more  than  recreation 
to  him." 

Seven  Years'  Residence  Abroad.     1826-1833. 

Paris,  Berne,  Florence,  Naples,  Rome. 

Friendly  with  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  the  Marquis  Lafayette. 

Consul  for  two  years  at  Lyons. 

In  Paris  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution  of  1830. 

His  company  was  sought,  wherever  he  lived,  by  distinguished 
people,  although  he  rarely  made  use  of  letters  of  intro 
duction. 

Loved  Italy  for  its  skies  and  scenery. 

Wrote  several  novels,  the  scenes  of  which  are  laid  in  his  na 
tive  land:  The  Prairie,  The  Red  Rover,  and  others. 

Return  to  the  United  States.     Period  of  Controversy. 
Twenty  lawsuits  at  one  time. 
Made    himself    personally  unpopular.      Misunderstood    by  his 

countrymen  and  his  townspeople. 

Took  up  his  abode  again  at  Otsego  Hall.  Unpleasant  legal 
disputes  with  local  authorities. 

Death  and  Burial  at  Cooperstown. 

Died  on  the  eve  of  his  sixty-second  birthday. 

Death-bed  Injunction.     The  family  should  furnish  no  material 

for  a  biography. 
Lies  in  the  grounds  of  Christ  Church,  by  the  side  of  his  wife, 

who  died  a  few  months  later  than  he. 

Monument  at  Cooperstown. 
In  Lakeside  Cemetery. 
A  column  surmounted  by  a  figure  of  Leatherstocking. 

Character. 

Decided,  original,  frank,  independent,  generous,  critical,  some 
what  reserved;  not  over-refined  either  by  nature  or  by  cul 
ture;  intensely  patriotic,  manly,  sincere,  of  lofty  principles. 
He  made  bitter  enemies  and  warm  friends.  Lacked  humor. 
Possessed  a  combative  disposition.  Was  opposed  to  New 
England  Puritans  and  Puritanism. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS   LIFE.  49 

"An  aristocrat  in  feeling  and  a  democrat  in  conviction." 
(Contrast  his  character  with  that  of  Washington  Irving.) 

Appearance. 

Fine,   massive   build.      Face   strongly   intellectual   and   manly. 
Impressive  port  and  vivacious  presence. 

Manner. 

Self-assertive,    somewhat     arrogant,     earnest,     and     at     times 
brusque.     It  repelled  at  first  sight,  rather  than   attracted. 
Bryant  spoke  of  his  "emphatic  frankness." 

Family. 

Susan  Fenimore  Cooper,  the  authoress.     Lived  at  Cooperstown. 
Paul  Cooper,  an  Albany  lawyer  (who  died  in  1895,  leaving  a 
son  and  three  daughters) 

Memorial  Meeting. 

Held  in  New  York  six  months  after  his  death. 
Daniel  Webster  the  presiding  officer.     Irving  present. 
William  Cullen  Bryant  orator. 

Autobiographic  Glimpses. 

Home  as  Found.     His  characters  of  John  and  Edward  Effing- 
ham  show  Cooper  himself. 
Sketches  of  Switzerland.     Gleanings  in  Europe. 


50  JAMES  FENIMOEE  COOPER. 


APPELLATIONS. 

A  NATIONAL  NOVELIST  OF  INTERNATIONAL  FAME. 

A  LARGE  LITERARY  CREATOR  IN  A  FIELD  OF  HIS  OWN  DIS 
COVERY. 

THE  FIRST  NOVELIST  WEST  OF  THE  ATLANTIC. 

THE  SEA-NOVELIST  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

TIIK  AMERICAN  SCOTT. 

AMERICA'S  NOVELIST  OF  ACTION. 

THE  STORY-TELLER  OF  AMERICAN  WOOD*  AND  WATERS. 

A  PANORAMIC  NOVELIST. 

A  PHILISTINE  OF  ABOUNDING  VITALITY. 

THE  MOST  PROLIFIC  OF  AMERICAN  AUTHORS. 

THE  ORIGINATOR  OF  THE  RED  MAN  AS  A  CHARACTER  IN  LIT 
ERATURE. 

A  DEFENDER  OF  REPUBLICAN  INSTITUTIONS. 

THE  PUGNACIOUS  AMERICAN. 

A  MASTER  IN  DESCRIPTION. 

THE  DISCOVERER  OF  A  NEW  REGION  OF  ROMANCE. 

ONE  OF  AMERICA'S  LITERARY  PIONEERS. 

A  STRIKING  FIGURE  IN  AMERICA'S  LITERARY  ANNALS. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  51 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WRITINGS. 

Cooper's  present  fame  rests  wholly  on  his  novels. 

His  Literary  Domain. 

"The  borderland  between  barbarism  and  civilization." 
His  Themes. 

The  Sea.  The  Forest.  The  Sailor.  The  Hunter.  The  Pioneer. 
The  Indian. 

Literary  Merits. 

Stirring  action.     Vigorous  description. 

Literary  Faults. 

Prolixity.  Haste.  Crudity.  Inability  to  delineate  women  and 
children. 

Original  Fields. 

The  novel  of  the  sea  and  the  novel  of  the  Indian. 

Three  Literary  Creations. 

Leatherstocking.     Long  Tom  Coffin.     Harvey  Birch. 

His  Novels. 

Thirty-two  in  number.     (Walter  Scott  wrote  twenty-seven.) 

Welcomed  eagerly  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

"His  works  are  published  as  soon  as  he  produces  them,  in  thirty- 
four  places  in  Europe."  —  S.  F.  B.  MORSE. 

Of  the  romantic  type. 

Read  most  by  young  people. 

Stories  of  action.     Not  like  modern  novels,  largely  analytical. 

The  Prefaces  to  his  books  were  written  "  not  to  conciliate  the  reader, 
but  to  hurl  scorn  at  the  reviewer." 


CLASSIFICATION. 

Novels  of  the  American  Revolution. 
v  The  Spy  ;  or,  A  Tale  of  the  Neutral  Ground. 

SCENE.    Laid  in  Westchester  Co.,  N.Y.  (Cooper's  home  at  time 
of  writing).    Along  the  shores  of  the  Hudson. 


52  JAMES   FENIMOEE  COOPEE. 

HERO.  Harvey  Birch,  a  Revolutionary  patriot.  Suggested  by 
a  story  which  the  author  heard  from  Chief  Justice  Jay,  of 
Revolutionary  fame. 

The  reading  of  this  novel  led  a  French  patriot  to  assume  the 
name  of  Harvey  Birch,  and  pay  the  same  service  to  his  gov 
ernment  in  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe. 

It  called  forth  a  complimentary  letter  from  Maria  Edgeworth, 
the  Irish  novelist. 

The  best  known  English  novel  in  Mexico  and  South  America. 

Appeared  the  same  year  with  Irving's  Sketch-Book  and  Dana's 

Idle  Man. 
Lionel  Lincoln ;  or,  The  Leaguer  of  Boston. 

Intended  as  one  of  a  series  of  novels  of  the  Revolution,  to  illus 
trate  the  history  of  each  of  its  thirteen  States. 

Bancroft  calls  Cooper's  description  in  this  tale  of  the  Battle  of 

Bunker  Hill  the  best  written  account  of  that  engagement. 
The  Red  Rover.    The  Revolutionary  struggle  on  the  water. 

"Written  when  Cooper  was  near  Paris. 

Scene  opens  in  the  harbor  of  Newport,  R.I. 
Sea  Novels. 

Here  Cooper  reigns  an  unchallenged  master.     (Frederick  Marry- 

at,  the  English  marine  novelist,  ranks  second.) 
The  Pilot.    1823.     Instantaneous  success. 

Prompted  by  a  conversation  with  a  New  York  man,  in  which 
Scott's  knowledge  of  sea-life  as  shown  in  The  Pirate,  just 
published,  was  called  in  question. 

Founded  on  the  exploits  of  John  Paul  Jones. 

The  first  sea  novel  of  the  English  language. 

Translated  early  into  German,  French,  and  Italian. 

Dramatized  by  Fitzball. 

HERO.    Long  Tom  Coffin. 

"The   finest   thing   since    Parson   Adams."— MARY  RUSSELL 

MITFORD. 
The  Red  Rover  (see  note  above).     The  Water  Witch,  and  others. 

Political  Novels. 

Satanstoe.     The  Chain-bearer.     The  Red-skins.     The  Bravo.     The 
Headsman  of  Berne.     The  Heidenmauer. 

•v    The  Leatherstocking  Series. 

A  famous  literary  quintette. 

"  A  drama  in  five  acts." 

The  "  perpetual  delight "  of  the  elder  Dumas,  the  French  novelist. 


NOTES  ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  53 

LOGICAL  ORDER. 

The  Deerslayer.     1841.     The  latest  in  date  of  publication. 

On  the  war-path. 

^/  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans.    "  Hawkeye."    (Daniel  Boone?)  1826. 
Scene  laid  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lake  George. 
The  writing  of  the  story  was  suggested  to  Cooper  by  Lord 

Derby. 

Career  of  activity  and  love. 
Leatherstocking  appears  here  at  his  best. 
(The  Pathfinder.    1840. 
The  Pioneers.    "  Natty  Bumpo."    1823. 
The  least  interesting  of  the  series. 
Written  "  to  please  himself." 

Thirty-five  hundred  copies  sold  the  morning  of  its  issue. 
The  Prairie.    "  The  Trapper."    1827. 
>.        Old  age  and  death. 
HERO.    Leatherstocking,  or  Natty  Bumpo. 

"  One  of  the  greatest  prize-men  of  fiction."  —  THACKERAY. 

"A  philosopher  of  the  wilderness." 

"  A  half-christian  and   a  half-savage  chevalier  of    American 

wild  life." 
Brave,  cool,  slow  of  word  and  act,  slightly  suspicious,  honest, 

manly. 
One  of  the  noblest  characters  in  fiction. 

"  One  wild  flower  he's  plucked  that  is  wet  with  the  dew 
Of  this  fresh  Western  world ;  and,  the  thing  not  to  mince, 
He  has  done  naught  but  copy  it  ill  ever  since." 

LOWELL'S  Fable. 

f Cooper  introduced  the  Indian  into  literature ;  Mrs.  Stowe,  the 
Negro. 
E.  —  Cooper  intended  to  write  a  sixth  Leatherstocking  novel,  the 
scene  to  be  laid  at  Niagara  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  but  he  was  dis 
suaded  from  doing  so  by  his  publisher. 

Other  Works  by  Cooper. 

Naval  History  of  the  United  States. 
Lives  of  Distinguished  Naval  Officers. 
Gleanings  of  Europe  and  Sketches  of  Switzerland. 
Homeward  Bound  and  Home  as  Found. 

Harsh  criticism  on  America  and  its  people. 
Ways  of  the  Hour. 

Criticism  of  trial  by  jury. 


54  JAMES   FENIMOBE   COOPER. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes. 

"Have  you  read  the  American  novels?  In  my  mind  they  are  as 
good  as  anything  Sir  Walter  ever  wrote.  .  .  .  I  envy  the  Amer 
icans  their  Mr.  Cooper."  —  MARY  RUSSELL  MITFORD. 

"  Fenimore  Cooper  saved  me  from  despair  after  my  second  return  to 
Italy,  and  has,  up  to  this  moment,  heen  a  father  to  me  in  kind 
ness." —  Letter  of  GREENOUGH,  the  sculptor.  1833. 

In  1833  Victor  Hugo  remarked  to  James  Grant  Wilson  that,  except 
ing  the  authors  of  France,  Cooper  was  the  greatest  novelist  of 
the  century. 

"To  plunge  into  one  of  his  great  books  brings  a  refreshment  only  to 
be  likened  to  that  of  the  sea  and  forest  which  they  describe." 
— HAWTHORNE  and  LEMMON. 

"  His  writings  are  instinct  with  the  spirit  of  nationality.  In  his  pro 
ductions  eveiy  American  must  take  an  honest  pride."  — WIL 
LIAM  H.  PRESCOTT. 

"  While  the  love  of  country  continues  to  prevail,  his  memory  will 
exist  in  the  hearts  of  the  people."  —  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Cooperstown. 

"  The  home  of  the  '  Last  of  the  Mohicans.'  " 

"  Placed  in  a  gateway  of  mountains,"  sixty  miles  west  of  Albany. 

Inhabitants,  about  twenty-five  hundred.  A  popular  summer  re 
sort. 

Judge  Cooper  was  the  founder  of  the  village,  the  father  and  magis 
trate  of  the  community,  and  its  representative  in  Congress. 

On  Otseyo  Lake,  the  scene  of  several  of  the  Leatherstocking 
tales. 

Lake  Steamer,  "Natty  Bumpo,"  and  tug,  "Pioneer." 

Otsego  Hock.  The  traditional  meeting-place  of  Indians  for  hun 
dreds  of  miles. 

Leatherstocking  Falls.    On  the  west  side  of  the  lake. 

Leatherstocking' s  Cave,  in  a  cliff  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  vil 
lage. 

Otsego  Hall.     "Templeton,"  prominent  in  The  Pioneers. 
Destroyed  by  fire  soon  after  Cooper's  death. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  55 

Here  Judge  Cooper  entertained  "Washington,  Talleyrand,  and 
many  other  notable  personages,  including  a  number  of  polit 
ical  exiles  of  the  French  Revolution. 

See  R.  B.  Coffin's  The  Home  of  Cooper;  also  views  in  Duy- 
ckinck,  Vol.  I.,  and  Appleton's  American  Biography. 

Influence  of  Cooper's  Early  Environment. 

"He  learned  wood-lore  as  the  young  Indian  learned  it,  face  to  face 
with  the  divinities  of  the  forest.  He  knew  the  calls  of  the  wild 
animals  far  across  the  gloomy  wilderness.  He  could  follow  the 
deer  and  bear  to  their  secluded  haunts.  He  could  retrace  the 
path  of  the  retreating  wolf  by  the  broken  cobwebs  glistening  in 
the  early  sunlight;  and  the  cry  of  the  panther,  high  overhead 
in  the  pines  and  hemlocks,  was  a  speech  as  familiar  as  his  own 
tongue.  When  he  was  thirsty  he  made  a  hunter's  cup  of  leaves, 
and  drank  in  the  Indian  fashion.  When  fatigued  he  lay  down 
to  rest  with  that  sense  of  security  that  comes  only  to  the  forest- 
bred.  When  thoughtful  he  could  learn,  from  the  lap  of  the 
waves  against  the  shore,  the  murmur  of  leaves,  and  the  rustle  of 
wings,  those  lessons  which  nature  teaches  in  her  quiet  moods." 
—  HENRIETTA  C.  WRIGHT. 

Cooper's  Continental  Fame  "could  be  said  to  hold  its  own  with  that  of 
Walter  Scott." 

His  Preferences  among  his  own  books. 
The  Pathfinder  and  The  Deerslayer. 
(These  two  novels  are  considered  his  most  artistic  ones.) 

Unfitness  of  His  Novels  for  Dramatization. 

See  William  Winter's  "  Thought  on  Cooper  "  in  Old  Shrines  and  Ivy. 


Cooper.    Depicter  of  the  external  and  active  side  of  the  Indian  character. 
Longfellow.   Depicter  of  the  inward  and  imaginative  side  of  his  character. 


Cooper.    The  romancer  of  adventure  and  external  incident. 

Hawthorne.    The  romancer  of  the  passions  and  experiences  of  the  human 
heart. 


Irving.     The  first  American  prose  writer. 


56  JAMES   FENIMORE  COOPER. 

Cooper.  The  first  American  novelist. 

Bryant.  The  first  American  poet. 

Cooper.  "  Colonel  of  the  American  literary  regiment." 

Irving.  "  Lieutenant-colonel." 

Bryant.     "  Major." 

Lowell,  Whittier,  Hawthorne,  Dana,  Halleck.     "Captains." — HALLECK. 


Comments  on  Cooper  by  Charles  F.  Richardson. 

"Let  no  one  go  to  Cooper,  as  to  Hawthorne,  for  instruction  in  the 
arts  of  style.  .  .  .  Instead  of  recognizing  his  defects,  and  trying 
either  to  correct  them  or  modify  his  choice  of  themes  and  his 
methods  of  treatment,  he  fell  into  an  inveterate  habit  of  reply 
ing  to,  or  suing  at  law,  those  who  had  criticised  him." 

"When  free  he  could  be  as  destructive  as  Victor  Hugo's  loose  can 
non  on  shipboard  [see  Hugo's  novel,  Ninety-Three] ;  when  self- 
contained  in  his  own  proper  field,  no  American  could  dispute, 
as  none  could  equal,  his  solid  success." 

"  Like  a  trained  hound,  his  powers  and  beauty  were  visible  in  motion 
rather  than  at  rest;  in  conflict,  not  in  home  life." 

"  "We  go  to  Cooper  with  the  demand,  '  Tell  us  a  story ; '  not  with  th.e 
plea,  '  Help  us  in  solving  the  riddle  of  existence.'  " 

"After  all,  a  novel  must  entertain,  and  a  cloud  of  witnesses  attest 
Cooper's  entertainingness." 

William  Winter's  Characterization  of  Cooper. 

"Often,  when  Cooper  is  imaginative,  his  mind  revels  over  vast 
spaces,  alike  in  the  trackless  wilderness  'and  on  the  trackless 
ocean —  forests  that  darken  half  a  continent,  and  tremendous  ice 
bergs  that  crash  and  crumble  upon  unknown  seas.  More  often 
lie  is  descriptive  and  meditative,  moralizing,  like  Wordsworth, 
on  rock  and  river  and  the  tokens  of  a  divine  soul  in  the  wonders 
of  creation.  His  highest  mood  of  feeling  is  that  of  calm-eyed 
philosophy.  His  highest  ideal  of  virtue  is  self-sacrifice." 


WILLIAM  OULLEN  BRYANT. 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 

POET,  JOURNALIST,  AND  COMMEMORATIVE  ORATOK. 


EXTRACTS. 

HE  who,  from  zone  to  zone, 

Guides  through  the  boundless  sky  thy  certain  flight, 
In  the  long  way  that  I  must  tread  alone, 

Will  lead  my  steps  aright. 

To  A  WATKRFOWL. 

To  him  who  in  the  love  of  nature  holds 
Communion  with  her  visible  forms,  she  speaks 

A  various  language. 

THANATOPSIS. 

OLD  ocean's  gray  and  melancholy  waste. 

IBID. 

ALL  that  tread 
The  globe  are  but  a  handful  to  the  tribes 

That  slumber  in  its  bosom. 

IBID. 

So  live,  that  when  thy  summons  comes  to  join 
The  innumerable  caravan,  which  moves 
To  that  mysterious  realm  where  each  shall  take 
His  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death, 

Thou  go  not,  like  the  quarry-slave  at  night, 
59 


60  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BEY  ANT. 

Scourged  to  his  dungeon ;  but,  sustained  and  soothed 
By  an  unfaltering  trust,  approach  thy  grave 
Like  one  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 

THANATOPSIS. 

MAN  foretells  afar 

The  courses  of  the  stars ;  the  very  hour 
He  knows  when  they  shall  darken  or  grow  bright; 
Yet  doth  the  eclipse  of  Sorrow  and  of  Death 

Come  unforewarned. 

AN  EVENING  REVERY. 

ROBERT  of  Lincoln's  Quaker  wife, 

Pretty  and  quaint,  with  plain  brown  wings, 
Passing  at  home  a  patient  life, 

Broods  in  the  grass  while  her  husband  sings : 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink ; 
Brood,  kind  creature ;  you  need  not  fear 
Thieves  and  robbers  while  I  am  here. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

ROBERT  OF  LINCOLN. 

MAIDEN'S  hearts  are  always  soft : 
Would  that  men's  were  truer ! 

SONG. 

TRUTH  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again  ; 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers ; 
But  Error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain, 

And  dies  among  his  worshipers. 

THE    BATTLE-FIELD. 


EXTRACTS.  61 

THE  water,  as  the  wind  passed  o'er, 

Shot  upward  many  a  glancing  beam, 

Dimpled  and  quivered  more  and  more, 
And  tripped  along,  a  livelier  stream, 

The  flattered  stream,  the  simpering  stream, 

The  fond,  delighted,  silly  stream. 

THE  WIND  AND  STREAM. 

GLIDE  on  in  your  beauty,  ye  youthful  spheres, 

To  weave  the  dance  that  measures  the  years ; 

Glide  on,  in  the  glory  and  gladness  sent 

To  the  farthest  wall  of  the  firmament  — 

The  boundless  visible  smile  of  Him 

To  the  veil  of-  whose  brow  your  lamps  are  dim. 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  STABS. 

THE  groves  were  God's  first  temples. 

A  FOREST  HYMN. 

THE  melancholy  days  are  come,  the  saddest  of  the  year, 
Of  wailing  winds,  and  naked  woods,  and  meadows  brown 

and  sear. 

I  HE  DEATH  OF  THE  FLOWERS. 

THERE  are  notes  of  joy  from  the  hang-bird  and  wren, 
And  the  gossip  of  swallows  through  all  the  sky ; 

The  ground-squirrel  gayly  chirps  by  his  den, 
And  the  wilding  bee  hums  merrily  by. 

THE  GLADNESS  OF  NATURE. 

WHAT  heroes  from  the  woodland  sprung, 
When,  through  the  fresh  awakened  land, 

The  thrilling  cry  of  freedom  rung, 

And  to  the  work  of  warfare  strung 
The  yeoman's  iron  hand  ! 


62  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT. 

Hills  flung  the  cry  to  hills  around, 
And  ocean-mart  replied  to  mart, 
And  streams,  whose  springs  were  yet  unfound, 
Pealed  far  away  the  startling  sound 

Into  the  forest's  heart. 

SKVENTY-SIX. 

THE  barley-harvest  was  nodding  white, 
When  my  children  died  on  the  rocky  height, 
And  the  reapers  were  singing  on  hill  and  plain, 
When  I  came  to  my  task  of  sorrow  and  pain. 
But  now  the  season  of  rain  is  nigh, 
The  sun  is  dim  in  the  thickening  sky, 
And  the  clouds  in  the  sullen  darkness  rest 
Where  he  hides  his  light  at  the  doors  of  the  west. 
I  hear  the  howl  of  the  wind  that  brings 
The  long  drear  storm  on  its  heavy  wings ; 
But  the  howling  wind,  and  the  driving  rain 
Will  beat  on  my  houseless  head  in  vain : 
I  shall  stay,  from  my  murdered  sons  to  scare 
The  beasts  of  the  desert  and  fowls  of  air. 

KlZPAH. 

THERE  is  a  day  of  sunny  rest 

For  every  dark  and  troubled  night ; 

And  grief  may  bide,  an  evening  guest, 
But  joy  shall  come  with  early  light. 

"BLESSED  ABE  THEY  THAT  MOURN." 

ERE  russet  fields  their  green  resume, 
Sweet  flower,  I  love,  in  forest  bare, 

To  meet  thee,  when  thy  faint  perfume 
Alone  is  in  the  virgin  air. 

THE  YELLOW  VIOLET. 


EXTRACTS.  63 

"  OH  FAIREST  OF  THE  RURAL  MAIDS." 

OH  fairest  of  the  rural  maids  ! 
Thy  birth  was  in  the  forest  shades ; 
Green  boughs,  and  glimpses  of  the  sky, 
Were  all  that  met  thy  infant  eye. 

Thy  sports,  thy  wanderings,  when  a  child, 
Were  ever  in  the  sylvan  wild ; 
And  all  the  beauty  of  the  place 
Is  in  thy  heart  and  on  thy  face. 

The  twilight  of  the  trees  and  rocks 
Is  in  the  light  shade  of  thy  locks ; 
Thy  step  is  as  the  wind,  that  weaves 
Its  playful  way  among  the  leaves. 

Thy  eyes  are  springs,  in  whose  serene 
And  silent  waters  heaven  is  seen ; 
Their  lashes  are  the  herbs  that  look 
On  their  young  figures  in  the  brook. 

The  forests'  depths,  by  foot  impressed, 
Are  not  more  sinless  than  thy  breast; 
And  holy  peace  that  fills  the  air 
Of  those  calm  solitudes,  is  there. 


64  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 


BEFERENCES. 

Biographies  by  Parke  Godwin,  John  Bigelow,  A.  J.  Symington,  D.  J. 

Hill. 

James  Grant  Wilson's  Bryant  and  His  Friends. 
Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  II.  pp.  36-49. 
Griswold's  Poets  of  America. 
Stedman's  Poets  of  America. 
Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  V. 
Gilman's  Poets'  Homes. 

George  William  Curtis's  Homes  of  American  Authors. 
Mrs.  Kirkland's  Homes  of  American  Authors. 
Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 
Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 
Morris's  Half  Hours  with  the  Best  American  Authors. 
Chappel's  Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Americans.    Vol.  II. 
Whipple's  Literature  and  Life. 
Poe's  Literati.     (Acrimonious.) 
Bayard  Taylor's  Critical  Essays. 

Duyckinck's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  I. 
Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 
Lippincott's  Biographical  Dictionary. 
Preface  to  Complete  Edition  of  Bryant's  Poems. 
Histories  and  text-books  of  American  Literature. 
Memorial  Addresses  — 

George  William  Curtis,  before  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 

Robert  C.  Winthrop,  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

John  Bigelow,  before  the  Century  Club. 
Harper's  Magazine.    April,  1851.    March,  1862. 
Atlantic  Monthly.    February,  1864. 
Scribner's  Magazine.   August,  1878  (G.  W.  Curtis's  Address.   Illustrated. 

Wyatt  Eaton's  portrait  of  Bryant). 

Century  Magazine.    March,  1882  (Bryant  and  Longfellow). 
Lippincott's  Magazine.    July,  1882. 


REFERENCES.  65 

New  England  Magazine.  September,  1893  ("Literary  Associations  of 
Berkshire."  Illustrated).  March,  1892  ("Bryant's  New  England 
Home."  Illustrated).  October,  1894  ("  Bryant,  the  Poet  of  Nature." 
The  frontispiece,  a  portrait  of  Bryant). 

The  Review  of  Reviews.  October,  1894  (Frontispiece,  the  latest  portrait 
taken  of  Bryant.  Articles  on  his  place  in  American  Literature,  and 
the  Bryant  Centennial). 

St.  Nicholas.    December,  1876.     (Bryant's  "  Boys  of  My  Boyhood.") 

Alden's  Studies  in  Bryant. 


66  WILLIAM   CULL  EN  BRYANT. 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS    LIFE. 

November  3,  1794. 
June  12,  1878. 

It  began  in  Washington's  administration,  and  extended  into 
that  of  Hayes. 

An  Ancestor,  Peter  Bryant,  settled  in  Plymouth,  Mass.,  in  1632. 

Father. 

A  physician.     Cultured  and  travelled  for  his  time. 
Trained  his  children  well.     Fostered  William's  taste  for  poetry. 
See  allusions  to  him  in  Bryant's  poems,  "Hymn  to  Death,"  and 
"  To  the  Past." 

Mother. 

Like  Longfellow's,  a  descendant  of  John  Alden. 

Thrifty,  economical,  intelligent;  interested  in  neighborhood  and 

public  affairs. 
Kept  a  diary  fifty-three  years  without  missing  a  day.      Entry 

for  Nov.  3,   1794:  "Storming,  wind  N.E. ;  churned;  seven 

in  the  evening,  son  born." 
"Bryant's  mother  was  his  reliance;  his  father  was  sunshine." 

Birthplace. 

Cummington,  Hampshire   County,  Massachusetts,  in  a  pictur 
esque  mountain  region. 

Bryant's  poetry  belongs  to  New  England,  although  his  life  was 
lived  mainly  in  New  York  City. 

Read  his  birthday  poem,  The  Third  of  November,  1861. 

A  whipping-post  stood  within  a  mile  of  his  home,  —  a  vestige  of 
colonial  times.     The  poet  once  witnessed  the  scourging  of  a  , 
thief. 

Named  for  William  Cullen,  a  physician  friend  of  his  father's. 


OUTLINE   OF  J/IS   LIFE.  67 

Atmosphere  of  the  Home. 

Somewhat  Puritanical.     Severe  discipline. 

"  The  home  of  virtue,  not  of  emotion."  (Contrast  with  Tenny 
son's  home.) 

Frail  Child,  with  an  abnormally  large  head.     To  reduce  the  size  of 
this,  the  infant  was  plunged  daily  in  a  spring. 

His  Youth. 

Passed  largely  out  of  doors  in  the  enjoyment  of  nature.  "  He 
ground  his  colors  in  the  open  air." 

He  often  prayed  fervently  that  he  might  receive  the  gift  of 
poetic  genius. 

His  mental  diet  was  at  first  Watts's  Hymns,  hrs  father's  medi 
cal  works,  and  Pope's  Iliad ;  later,  Thomson,  Cowper, 
Burns,  Wordsworth,  Southey,  and  Henry  Kirke  White. 

Precocity. 

(Compare  with  that  of  Byron,  Pope,  and  the  Goodale  sisters.) 

He  knew  his  letters  when  a  year  and  a  half  old. 

At  four  years  of  age  read  well,  and  was  an  almost  faultless  speller. 

Kepeated  Watts's  Hymns  at  five  years. 

Wrote  verses  at  twelve,  and  recited  them  in  public  at  the  close 
of  the  school  term. 

In  two  months  of  study,  he  "  knew  the  Greek  Testament  as  if  it 
had  been  English." 

When  fourteen  he  wrote  "  The  Embargo,"  a  political  satire  on 
Jefferson's  administration.  (He  afterwards  championed 
ably  that  president's  democratic  ideas.) 

"  Thanatopsis,"  his  best  known  poem,  was  written  in  his  eigh 
teenth  year. 

Education. 

Two  terms  at  Williams  College,  entering  as  a  Sophomore.  (View 
of  college  seen  in  Duyckinck's  Cyclopaedia,  Vol  I.)  Not 
satisfactory.  (In  later  life,  made  an  alumnus .) 

Distinguished  for  linguistic  and  literary  ability. 

Planned  to  continue  his  studies  at  Yale,  but  his  father's  limited 
means  did  not  permit  this. 

Studied  law  in  private  offices. 


68  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 

Practised  Law  nine  years  in  Western  Massachusetts,  attaining  high 

rank  in  local  and  State  courts. 
Eead  the  last  stanza  of  his  poem,  Green  River. 

Manuscript  of  "  Thanatopsis  "  discovered  by  the  father,  with  other 
verses,  in  the  son's  desk  during  the  latter' s  absence  from 
home. 

"  American  poetry  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  Septem 
ber  number  of  the  North  American  Review,  1817,  when  this 
poem  and  the  '  Inscription  for  the  Entrance  to  a  Wood ' 
appeared  in  it." 

Incident  of  R.  H.  Dana's  visit  to  the  Boston  State  House  to 
see  the  -supposed  author. 

A  Copy  of  Wordsworth's  Ballads  "changed  the  face  of  nature  to 
him." 

Delivered  "  The  Ages  "  before  Harvard's  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society. 

1821. 

Honor  secured  through  Dana's  influence. 
A  didactic  poem  on  the  history  of  the  race.     Stately,  grave, 

philosophic.      Written   in    the    Spenserian    Stanza.      (See 

Analysis  of  Versification.) 
Perhaps  the  best  poem  of  its  kind  ever  recited  before  a  college 

fraternity,  American  or  English. 
Bryant's  only  occasional  poem. 
(Macaulay's  "  Evening  "  was  delivered  the  same  year  before  the 

students  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. ) 

Removal  to  New  York  in   1825,  where  Bryant  spent  most  of  the 

remainder  of  his  long  life. 

Abandonment  of  law  for  journalism.  (As  in  the  cases  of 
Lowell,  Longfellow,  and  others.) 

Marriage  to  Frances  Fairchild. 

"  Their  union  was  a  poem  of  the  tenderest  rhythm." 
His  prayer  at  the  time.  —  "  May  God  Almighty  mercifully  take 
care  of  our  happiness  here  and  hereafter.     May  we  ever 
continue  constant  to  each  other,  and  mindful  of  our  mutual 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS   LIFE.  69 

promises  of  attachment  and  truth.  .   .  .     Together  may  we 
lead  a  long,  happy,  and  innocent  life,  without  any  diminu 
tion  of  affection  till  we  die.  .  .  .     And  that  we  may  be  less 
unworthy  of  so  great  a  hlessing,  may  we  be  assisted  to  cul 
tivate  all  the  benign  and  charitable  affections,  and  offices 
not  only  toward  each  other,  but  toward  our  neighbors,  the 
human  race,  and  all  the  creatures  of  God." 
Poems  written  to  his  Wife. 
During  her  lifetime. 

"  O  Fairest  of  the  Kural  Maids." 

The  Future  Life. 

The  Life  that  Is.     (After  her  dangerous  illness  in  1858.) 
At  her  death. 

October,  1806. 
Seven  years   afterward. 

A  Memory.     (Unfinished.) 
"I  never  wrote  a  poem  that  I  did  not  repeat  to  her,  and 

take  her  judgment  upon  it." 

Connection  with  The  New  York  Evening  Post.     1826-1878. 

Bryant,   as  editor,   protested  vigorously  against  slavery,  advo 
cated  free  trade,  and  made  the  paper  strongly  Democratic. 
Maintained  in  it  an  exceptionally  high  moral  and  intellectual 
tone. 

Six  Tours  to  Europe,  one  extended  to  Egypt  and  Syria. 
Letters  from  a  Traveller. 
Letters  from  the  East. 
Letters  from  Spain  and  other  countries. 

Publication  of  Poems,  second  collection,  complete.     1832. 

Washington  Irving  (not  then  acquainted  with  Bryant)  brought 
out  an  English  edition  of  them,  writing  a  complimentary 
preface.  Professor  Wilson  reviewed  the  verses  'patroniz 
ingly  in  Bluckwood'1 s  Magazine. 

Received  well  by  the  English  public. 

Extensive  Travel  in  the  United  States  at  different  times  ;  in  Mexico 
and  Cuba. 


70  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT. 

Thirty  Years  of  uneventful  life.     Mellow  old  age. 

"  Beside  a  massive  gateway  built  up  in  years  gone  by, 
Upon  whose  top  the  clouds  in  eternal  shadow  lie, 
While  streams  the  evening  sunshine  on  quiet  wood  and  lea, 
I  stand  and  calmly  wait  till  the  hinges  turn  for  me." 

WAITING  BY  THE  GATE. 

Memorial  Discourses  on  Thomas  Cole,  the  artist,  James  Fenimore 

Cooper,  Goethe,  Shakespeare,  Scott,  Irving,  Mazzini. 
Bryant  had  a  peculiar  fitness  for  this  sort  of  oration,  —  "  He 
was  an  accomplished,  graceful,  and  impressive  speaker." 

Translation  of  Homer.     A  work  requiring  six  years.     1866-1872. 

Undertaken  when  the  poet  was  more  than  seventy  years  old, 
as  a  solace  after  the  loss  of  his  wife.  (As  Longfellow 
turned  to  Dante  under  the  same  bereavement.) 

Done  in  Blank  Verse.  Use  of  Roman  names  of  gods  and  god 
desses. 

In  many  respects  the  best  English  translation.  Homeric  spirit. 
Saxon  English. 

Some  earlier  translators:  George  Chapman,  Alexander  Pope, 
William  Cowper,  I.  Charles  Wright. 

A  later  translator,  William  Morris. 

(Read  the  fifth  book  of  The  Odyssey.') 

Honors  Paid  Him  Living. 

Celebration  of  his  Seventieth  Birthday  by  the   Century  Club, 
New  York.     (Bryant  had  been  one  of  its  founders.) 

Congratulatory  Address   by  George   Bancroft,   then  Presi 
dent. 

Poems   by   Lowell,    Holmes,    Bayard   Taylor,    Tuckerman, 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  Whittier,  Stoddard,  and  others. 

Letters    from    Longfellow,    N.    P.    Willis,    Dana,    Edward 
Everett. 

Presentation  of   Folio  of  forty  studies  by  the  various  art 
members  of   the  club,  including  Huntington,  Church, 
Durand,  Bierstadt,  and  Eastman  Johnson. 
Reception  by  the  Neio  York  Leyislature  when  he  was  visiting 

Governor  Tildeu. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  71 

Commemorative  Vase,  on  his  eightieth  birthday,  presented  by 
the  citizens  of  New  York. 

Designed   by   J.    H.    Whitehouse,  —  Greek    in    form,   and 
adorned  with  symbols  of  Bryant's  life  and  poems. 

Kept  in  New  York's  Metropolitan   Museum.     (This  mu 
seum  possesses  also  a  bronze  bust  of  the  poet.) 

See  Harper's  Magazine,  July,  1876 ;  and  Gilman's  Poets' 
Homes. 

(Another  eightieth  birthday  gift  was  a  cactus  plant,  brought 

from  Vergil's  tomb  at  Naples.) 
Admitted  to  the  Russian  Academy.     1873. 

Death,  in  the  Month  of  June,  after  a  fall  and  a  short  illness  conse 
quent  upon  it. 

His  desire  to  die  in  this  month.     See  poem,  "  June." 
His  daughter,  Mrs.  Parke  Godwin,  also  passed  away  in  the  same 
season  of  the  year  (June,  1893). 

Buried  at  Roslyn,  L.I.     His  poem,  "June,"  recited  at  the  funeral. 

His  First  Biographer. 

Parke  Godwin,  his  son-in-law. 

Character. 

Unimpassioned,  reserved,  and  lofty  in  nature  ;  "  clear  in  mind, 
sober  in  judgment,  refined  in  taste  ; "  considerate  of  the 
feelings  of  others  ;  always  controlled  in  temper  ;  free  from 
all  vices  and  time-wasting  habits.  Intensely  fond  of  nature 
and  freedom.  ("I  like  air  and  elbow-room,  as  one  finds 
them  about  the  Pyramids,  as  at  Thebes  and  Baalbec.") 
Popular  as  a  man  when  unpopular  as  a  journalist.  "He 
wrote  a  note  to  his  butcher  as  faultlessly  as  an  article  for 
the  press." 

Deeply  religious.  In  doctrine  he  was  of  the  Unitarian  faith. 
Bryant  received  private  baptism  at  the  age  of  sixty-four, 
when  in  Naples,  and  during  the  all  but  fatal  illness  of  his 
wife. 

Appearance  and  Manner. 

Majestic,  kingly,  reverence-inspiring.  ("He  was  a  favorite 
with  photographers  and  artists  in  crayon.")  Tall  and 


72  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BEYANT. 

slender.  Well-shaped  head,  high  forehead,  overhanging 
eyebrows,  deep-set  and  keen  eyes,  aquiline  nose. 

"  He  resembled  a  Greek  philosopher  more  than  Longfellow  or 
Walt  Whitman."  "  His  face,  like  his  voice,  had  the  in 
nate  charm  of  tranquillity." 

In  manner  he  was  modest,  courteous,  dignified,  and  kindly. 

For  views  of  Launt  Thompson's  bust  of  Bryant,  see  Harper's 
Magazine,  September,  1894. 

Habits. 

Usually  rose  at  five  o'clock  and  retired  at  ten. 

Took  daily  morning  gymnastic  exercises  and  a  cold  bath 
throughout  his  long  life. 

Walked  much,  two  miles  to  his  business  every  day.  A  pleas 
urable  sight  to  New  Yorkers  for  fifty  years. 

"  The  good  gray  head,  which  all  men  knew,"  is  as  applicable 
to  Bryant  as  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 

Never  indulged  in  a  stimulant  (even  coffee),  a  narcotic,  or 
condiments. 

"  He  treated  his  body  as  God's  temple." 

His  perfect  health  was  notable  ;  although  when  young  he  was 
threatened  with  pulmonary  weakness,  he  threw  off  the 
trouble,  and  was  never  known  to  have  a  sickness  in  his 
more  than  fourscore  years  of  active  life. 

Memory. 

Marvellous. 

He  said  that  with  a  moment's  reflection  he  could  recall  every 
poem  he  had  ever  written  ;  while  his  resources  as  to  the 
poetry  of  English  authors  were  inexhaustible. 

"  He  was  fastidious  about  his  reading,  believing  that  there  was 
no  worse  thief  than  a  bad  book." 

Linguistic  Accomplishments. 

Bryant  spoke  all  the  living  European  languages  save  Greek, 
and  was  familiar  with  the  literatures  of  many  of  them. 


APPELLATIONS.  73 


APPELLATIONS. 

THE  NESTOR  OF  OUR  POETS. 

THE  FATHER  OF  OUR  SONG. 

OUR  MEDITATIVE  POET  OF  NATURE. 

THE  POET  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  WILD  FLOWERS. 

THE  GREAT  AMERICAN. 

NATURE'S  CELEBRANT. 

THE  FOREMOST  CITIZEN. 

A  TYPICAL  REPUBLICAN. 

THE  AMERICAN  WORDSWORTH. 

OUR  PURITAN  GREEK. 

A  PROPHET  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 

THE  POET  OF  PAINTERS. 

A  HIGH  PRIEST  AT  THE  ALTAR  OF  NATURE. 

THE  LITERARY  AND  Civic  NESTOR  OF  NEW  YORK  SOCIETY. 

OUR  EARLY  LANDSCAPE  POET. 

CALM  PRIEST  OF  NATURE. 

BARD  OF  THE  ELEMENTS. 


74  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 


NOTES    ON   HIS   WRITINGS. 

General  Comments, 

Style.     Simple,  clear,  natural,  stately.     (Bryant  protested  against 

the  obscurity  of  Browning's  style.) 
Nature.     His  poetry  is  imbued  with  an  austere,  solemn,  reverential 

spirit. 
Length  of  poems.     Like  Poe,  Bryant  did  not  sanction  long  poems; 

he  considered  seventy-five  lines  a  good  limit. 
No  epic  or  drama  is  found  among  his  writings. 
Most  of  his  poems  have  been  translated  into  the  Russian  language. 
There  was  no  original  writing  in  America  when  Bryant  began  his 

literary  career. 
"In  the  whole  range  of  his  writings,  there  is  no  line  or  word  that 

appeals  to  an  unworthy  feeling." 
"The  writing  of  poetry  was  little  more  than  an  avocation  to  Bryant. 

He  once  said,  "  I  should  have  starved  if  I  had  been  obliged  to 

depend  on  my  poetry  for  a  living." 

CLASSIFICATION. 

Autobiographical  Poems. 

Inscription  for  the  Entrance  to  a  "Wood.  To  a  Waterfowl  (written 
in  the  poet's  twenty-first  year,  after  a  journey  on  foot  to  Plain- 
field  in  search  of  an  opening  for  law  practice).  Hymn  to  Death 
(evoked  by  the  death  of  his  father;  read  the  tributary  lines). 
Death  of  the  Flowers  (in  memory  of  a  sister  who  died  young 
in  consumption).  Four  poems  to  his  wife.  A  Lifetime. 

Two  Humorous  Poems. 

To  a  Mosquito.    Rhode  Island  Coal. 

Nature  Poems,  that  sing  of 
Trees. 

A  Forest  Hymn.  Tree-Burial.  Autumn  "Woods.  Among  the 
Trees.  Inscription  for  the  Entrance  to  a  Wood.  The  Plant 
ing  of  the  Apple-Tree. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  75 

Water. 

The  Rivulet  (it  ran  by  the  Cummington  home).     Green  River. 

The  Fountain.     To  the  River  Arve.    A  Hymn  of  the  Sea. 

A  Rain-Dream.      A  Scene  on  the   Banks  of  the  Hudson. 

Catterskill  Falls.     The  Tides.      The  Night  Journey  of   a 

River.    The  Twenty-Second  of   February  (the  second  half 

of  the  poem  very  poetically  compares  Washington's  course 

to  that  of  the  "  mighty  Hudson"). 

(Symbolical :     The  Stream  of  Life.     The  Flood  of  Years.) 
Winds. 

The  Evening  Wind.    The  Hurricane.    The  Summer  Wind.    The 

West  Wind.     March.     The  Winds.     The  Wind  and  the 

Stream. 
Flowers. 

The  Yellow  Violet.     To  the  Fringed  Gentian.     The  Death  of 

the  Flowers.     The   Child's  Funeral.     Innocent  Child  and 

Snow-white  Flower. 

Other  Nature  Poems.     (More  than  a  hundred  in  number.) 

The  Gladness  of  Nature.  To  a  Cloud.  June.  After  a  Tempest. 
The  Song  of  the  Sower.  The  Return  of  the  Birds.  Robert  of 
Lincoln. 

"His  heart  throbbed  rhythmic  to  the  heart  divine, 
That  bird,  flower,  forest,  stream,  and  mountain  sway." 

Poems  on  the  Indian. 

Monument  Mountain  (the  scene  of  the  narrative  is  laid  near 
Stockbridge,  Mass).  An  Indian  Story.  The  Disinterred  War 
rior.  The  Indian  Girl's  Lament.  An  Indian  at  the  Burial- 
Place  of  his  Fathers.  A  Legend  of  the  Delawares. 

Patriotic  Poems. 

The  Twenty-Second  of  December.  [Two  Poems.]  Seventy-Six. 
O  Mother  of  a  Mighty  Race.  Our  Country's  Call.  Not  Yet. 
The  Twenty-Second  of  February.  The  Death  of  Lincoln.  The 
Antiquity  of  Freedom.  Song  of  Marion's  Men  (Bryant's  best 
lyric;  the  third  and  fourth  lines  were  modified  for  Irving's 
English  edition  of  the  poems).  Centennial  Hymn. 

Poems  on  Slavery. 

The  Death  of  Slavery.     The  African  Chief. 
Hebraic  Poems. 

Rizpah.     The  Song  of  the  Stars. 


76  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BEY  ANT. 

Hellenic  Poems. 

The  Massacre  at  Scio.  The  Song  of  the  Greek  Amazon.  The  Greek 
Partisan.  The  Greek  Boy. 

Translations  from  the  Spanish,  Portuguese,  French,  Prover^al,  Italian, 
Latin,  and  Greek. 

Two  Exquisite  Fairy  Tales. 

Sella  ("Shadow").  Little  People  of  the  Snow  (has  been  illus 
trated). 

Written  in  the  winter  of  18G2-18G3  as  recreation  from  the  depression 
resulting  from  the  war  and  the  burden  of  editorial  duties. 

For  an  article,  "  Sella,  Illustrated,"  see  Art  Journal,  1876. 


His  Best  Known  Poem,  "  Thanatopsis."     ("  View  of  Death.") 
Not  the  writer's  own  favorite;  he  preferred  "  The  Past." 
"  Original  in  conception  and  execution.  .  .  .     The  microcosm  of  the 
author's  mind  and  powers.  ...     A  piece  of  verse  of  which  any 
language  or  age  may  be  proud.  .  .  .     Its  morality  and  its  trust 
are  ethnic  rather  than  Christian."  —  CHARLES  F.  RICHARDSON. 
Although  this  poem  voices  no  belief  in  personal  immortality,  unmis 
takable  expressions  of  such  a  belief  are  found  in  The  Future 
Life,  Hymn  to  Death,  The  Return  of  Youth,  and  other  poems. 
Wordsworth  committed  the  poem  to  memory. 

"  Bryant  rose  in  this  poem  from  the  lyrical  expression  of  nature  to 
an  epic  interpretation  of  her  solemn  majesty." — R.  H.  STOD- 
DARD. 

See  Harper's  Magazine,  September,  1804  ("The  Origin  of  a  Great 
Poem  ").  This  magazine  shows  a  view  of  the  Cummington  home 
in  which  the  verses  were  written. 

The  Song  of  the  Sower. 

Read  with  Jean  Fra^ois  Millet's  picture,  The  Sower,  at  hand. 
(See  "  Selected  Proofs,"  Century  Co.,  No.  20.) 

The  Flood  of  Years. 

Written  in  Bryant's  eighty-second  year.  "A  fitting  crown  for  an 
existence  so  beneficent  and  exalted." 

His  Poetic  Measures. 

Bryant's  poetry  furnishes  excellent  material  for  the  study  of  versifi 
cation. 
(Consult  Analysis  of  Versification.) 


NOTES   ON  JUS    WHITINGS.  11 

Favorite  Metres.    Blank  Verso  and  the  Iambic  Quatrain. 
Blank  Verse.     (Heroic  Metre.)     Used  in  most  of  his  long  poems. 
Translation    of    Homer.      Thanatopsis.       Inscription    for    the 

Entrance  to  a  Wood.     An  Evening  Revery.     Bella.     The 

Little  People  of  the  Snow.     Tree-Burial.     Forest  Hymn. 

The  Antiquity  of  Freedom.     A  Hymn  to  the  Sea.    The 

Flood  of  Years. 

Iambic  Quatrain.     (Long  Metre  Stanza). 

To  the  Fringed  Gentian.  The  Lapse  of  Time.  The  Massacre 
at  Scio.  The  West  Wind.  Blessed  are  They  that  Mourn. 
O  Fairest  of  the  Rural  Maids,  and  others. 

Anapestic  Verse. 

The  Song  of  the  Stars.  I  Cannot  Forget  with  what  Fervid  De 
votion.  The  Land  of  Dreams.  The  Gladness  of  Nature. 
The  Snow-Shower.  Green  River.  Catterskill  Falls. 

Trochaic  Verse.     (Not  often  employed  by  poets.) 

The  Cloud  on  the  Way.     The  Third  of  November. 
Varieties  of  Stanza.     (Analyze.) 

The  Ages.    To  a  Mosquito.     Song  for  New  Year's  Eve.     To  A 

Waterfowl    (stanza    suggested    by    Southey's    Ebb    Tide). 

The  Past.     An  Indian  Story.     A  Presentiment.     The  Voice 

of  Autumn.     O  Mother  of  a  Mighty  Race.     The  Planting 

of  an  Apple-Tree.     Robert  of  Lincoln.     The  Tides.     Italy. 

Waiting  by  the  Gate.    The  Death  of  Slavery.    May  Evening. 

Christmas  in  1875.    A  Northern  Legend.     The  New  Moon. 

The  Greek  Boy.     Seventy-Six.     Hymn  to  the  North  Star 

(last  line,  an  Alexandrine). 
Sonnets. 

William  Tell.     November.     October.    Consumption.    Mutation. 
Bryant's  sonnets  are  not,  in  general,  constructed  on  the  Italian 

model ;  they  are  fourteeii-lined  poems,  rather  than  sonnets. 
Consult  Deshler's  Afternoons  with  the  Poets. 

NOTE.  —  Bryant's    Poems   Complete  have    been  published  by  D. 
Appleton  &  Co. 

Groups  of  Allied  Works. 

Bryant's  The  Yellow  Violet  and  To  the  Fringed  Gentian. 

Lowell's  To  the  Dandelion. 

Emerson's  The  Rhodora. 

Whittier's  xVrbutus  and  The  Mayflowers. 


78  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT. 

"Wordsworth's  To  the  Small  Celandine. 
Burns's  To  a  Mountain  Daisy. 


Bryant's  June. 

Lowell's  Rhapsody  on  June  in  The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  and  his 
poem,  Under  the  Willows. 


Bryant's  Thanatopsis. 
Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Immortality. 


Bryant's  Oh  Fairest  of  the  Rural  Maids! 

Wordsworth's  Three  Years  She  grew  in  Sun  and  Shower. 


Bryant's  Sella. 

Hawthorne's  The  Marble  Faun. 
Shelley's  The  Witch  of  Atlas. 
Milton's  Comus.     (Sabrina). 
Fouque's  Undine. 


Bryant's  Little  People  of  the  Snow. 

Hawthorne's  The  Snow  Image. 

Hans  Christian  Andersen's  The  Ice  Maiden. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  79 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes. 

"  He  spoke  and  lived 
'  As  ever  in  his  great  Taskmaster's  eye.'  " 

HAWTHORNE. 

"  How  shall  we  thank  him  that  in  evil  days, 
He  faltered  never,  —  nor  for  blame  nor  praise, 
Nor  hire,  nor  party,  shamed  his  earlier  lays  ? 

But  as  his  boyhood  was  of  manliest  hue, 
So  to  his  youth,  his  manly  years  were  true, 
All  dyed  in  royal  purple  through  and  through." 

HOLMES. 

'.'  His  life  is  now  his  noblest  strain, 
His  manhood  better  than  his  verse." 

WHITTIER. 

"  Not  in  vague  tones  or  tricks  of  verbal  art 

The  plaint  and  paean  rung ; 
Thine  the  clear  utterance  of  an  earnest  heart, 
The  limpid  Saxon  tongue." 

Abraham  Lincoln  once  said  of  him,  "  It  was  worth  the  journey  to 

the  East  to  see  such  a  man." 
When  Dickens  landed  in  America  his  first  question  is  said  to  have 

been,  "  Where  is  Bryant  ?  " 
"Wherever  English  poetry  is  read  and  loved,  his  poems  are  known 

by  heart." 
"As  long  as  a  wild  duck  shall  cross  the  crimson  sky  of  evening 

in  his  flight,  so  long  shall  Bryant's  memory  float  heavenward 

with  it."  — C.  E.  NORTON. 

Centennial  Celebration  of  His  Birth. 

Observed  at  Cummington,  Aug.  16,  1894. 

Original  poems  read  by  John  Howard  Bryant,  aged  brother  of  Wil 
liam  Cullen,  and  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe. 


80  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT. 

Notable  literary  personages  present.  Charles  Eliot  Norton.  Charles 
Dudley  Warner.  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe.  Parke  Godwin. 
John  Bigelow. 

Illustrated  booklet,  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Celebration. 

New  York  Memorials  to  Bryant. 

Bronze  bust  and  vase  in  Metropolitan  Museum. 
Bryant  Park,  Forty-second  Street,  named  for  him. 

Works  Edited  by  Bryant. 

The  Talisman.    A  decorated  annual.     Three  issues. 

From  this  grew  the    Sketch   Club,   which    became    later  the 

Century  Club,  an  association  of  artists  and  literary  men. 
Picturesque  America.     (Appleton  &  Co.) 
Popular  History  of  America. 
A  Library  of  Poetry  and  Song. 

Its  introduction   is   an   admirable   essay  on  English  poets   and 

poetry. 
Twenty  thousand  copies  sold  in  six  months. 

Two  Prose  Tales. 

Medfteld.     The  Skeleton's  Cave. 

An  Illustrated  Edition  of  thirty   "  Nature  Poems."     Published  by  the 
Appletons,  1894.     Paul  de  Longpre',  artist. 

Critical  Attitude  Toward  His  own  Writing. 

He  destroyed  more  poetry  than  he  had  published. 
His  Economy. 

Bryant  did  his  editorial  writing  largely  011  the  backs  of  letters. 
1820-1821.     A  significant  year  in  Bryant's  life. 

Publication  of  his  first  volume  of  verse.     Marriage.     Death  of  his 

father.     Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration. 
His  Friends. 

They  comprised  all  the  prominent  literary  men  and  artists  in  the 

country. 
Acquaintance  with  British  Poets. 

In  1844  Bryant  met  in  England,  Wordsworth,  Samuel  Rogers,  and 

Thomas  Moore. 
Bryant  and  Lincoln. 

When  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  presidency,  Bryant  wrote  him 
a  friendly  letter  of  counsel,  which  elicited  a  grateful  letter  in 
response.  (Bryant  was  presidential  elector  at  the  time.) 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES.  81 

Bryant's  Homes. 

Cummington,  Mass.,  a,  mountain  village  in  the  Berkshires;  also  the 

birthplace  of  Massachusetts'  ex-Senator  Henry  L.  Dawes. 
Estate  purchased  in  1865  by  Bryant,  and  a  new  house  built,  in 

which  he  was  wont  to  pass  the  autumn  months. 
View  of  house  and  of  monument.      The  Critic,  Aug.  25,  1894, 

p.  123. 
Great  Harrington.    Seven  years  of  life  as  barrister. 

View.     New  England  Magazine,  September,  1893. 
New  York  City.    24  West  Sixteenth  Street,  for  many  years. 
"  Cedarmere,"  Roslyn,  L.I.     Summer  residence. 
Old  house,  built  in  1787.     A  poet's  home. 
Grounds  adorned  with  trees  and  plants  brought  from  various 

quarters  of  the  globe. 
Hospitality  extended  to  distinguished  foreigners  and  to  school 

children  of  the  neighborhood. 
Bryant  never  carried  editorial  work  to  Roslyn. 
Views.     Art  Journal,   1870.     Oilman's   Poets'   Homes.     Duy- 
ckinck's  Cyclopsedia,  II.  p.  186. 

Secretary  of  the  Copyright  League. 

This  League  issued  a  circular  of  appeal  in  1873,  looking  toward  the 
passage  of  an  International  Copyright  Law  in  America  and 
England,  which  was  signed  by  Bryant,  Longfellow,  Emerson, 
Whittier,  Garrison,  Beecher,  Holmes,  Mrs.  Stowe,  Miss  Alcott, 
Howells,  and  Aldrich. 

America's  first  organized  work  in  this  direction.  (Note  Lowell's 
connection  later  with  the  movement.) 


NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 


NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

PROSE  KOMANCEK. 


EXTRACTS. 
A  FOREST  WALK. 

"MOTHER,"  said  little  Pearl,  "the  sunshine  does  not 
love  you.  It  runs  away  and  hides  itself,  because  it  is 
afraid  of  something  on  your  bosom.  Now,  see  !  There 
it  is,  playing,  a  good  way  off.  Stand  you  here,  and  let 
me  run  and  catch  it.  I  am  but  a  child.  It  will  not  flee 
from  me,  for  I  wear  nothing  on  my  bosom  yet." 

"  Nor  ever  will,  my  child,  I  hope,"  said  Hester. 

"  And  why  not,  mother  ?  "  asked  Pearl,  stopping  short, 
just  at  the  beginning  of  her  race.  "Will  it  not  come  of 
its  own  accord,  when  I  am  a  grown  woman  ? " 

"  Run  away,  child,"  answered  her  mother,  "  and  catch 
the  sunshine  !  It  will  soon  be  gone." 

Pearl  set  forth,  at  a  great  pace,  and,  as  Hester  smiled  to 
perceive,  did  actually  catch  the  sunshine,  and  stood  laugh 
ing  in  the  midst  of  it,  all  brightened  by  its  splendor,  and 
scintillating  with  the  vivacity  excited  by  rapid  motion. 
The  light  lingered  about  the  lonely  child,  as  if  glad  of 
such  a  playmate,  until  her  mother  had  drawn  almost  nigh 
enough  to  step  into  the  magic  circle  too. 

"  It  will  go  now,"  said  Pearl,  shaking  her  head. 

85 


86  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

"  See  ! "  answered  Hester,  smiling,  "  now  I  can  stretch 
out  my  hand,  and  grasp  some  of  it." 

As  she  attempted  to  do  so,  the  sunshine  vanished ;  or, 
to  judge  from  the  bright  expression  that  was  dancing  on 
Pearl's  features,  her  mother  could  have  fancied  that  the 
child  had  absorbed  it  into  herself,  and  would  give  it  forth 
again,  with  a  gleam  about  her  path,  as  they  should  plunge 
into  the  gloomier  shade.  There  was  no  other  attribute 
that  so  much  impressed  her  with  a  sense  of  new  and 
untransmitted  vigor  in  Pearl's  nature,  as  this  never-failing 
vivacity  of  spirits;  she  had  not  the  disease  of  sadness, 
which  almost  all  children,  in  these  latter  days,  inherit, 
with  the  scrofula,  from  the  troubles  of  their  ancestors. 

Perhaps  this  too  was  a  disease,  and  but  the  reflex  of 
the  wild  energy  with  which  Hester  had  fought  against  her 
sorrows  before  Pearl's  birth.  It  was  certainly  a  doubtful 
charm,  imparting  a  hard,  metallic  lustre  to  the  child's 
character.  She  wanted  —  what  some  people  want  through 
out  life  —  a  grief  that  should  deeply  touch  her,  and  thus 
humanize  and-  make  her  capable  of  sympathy.  But  there 
was  time  enough  yet  for  little  Pearl. 

"  Come,  my  child  ! "  said  Hester,  looking  about  her  from 
the  spot  where  Pearl  had  stood  still  in  the  sunshine. 
"We  will  sit  down  a  little  way  within  the  Avood,  and 
rest  ourselves." 

"  I  am  not  aweary,  mother,"  replied  the  little  girl. 
"  But  you  may  sit  down,  if  you  will  tell  me  a  story  mean 
while." 

"A  story,  child!"  said  Hester.     "  And  what  about? 

"  0,  a  story  about  the  Black  Man,"  answered  Pearl, 
taking  hold  of  her  mother's  gown,  and  looking  up,  half 
earnestly,  half  mischievously,  into  her  face.  "How  he 


EXTRACTS.  87 

haunts  this  forest,  and  carries  a  book  with  him,  —  a  big, 
heavy  book,  with  iron  clasps  ;  and  how  this  ugly  Black 
Man  offers  his  book  and  iron  pen  to  everybody  that  meets 
him  here  among  the  trees ;  and  they  are  to  write  their 
names  in  their  own  blood.  And  then  he  sets  his  mark 
on  their  bosom  !  Didst  thou  ever  meet  the  Black  Man, 
mother  ?  " 

"  And  who  told  yon  this  story,  Pearl  ? "  asked  her 
mother,  recognizing  a  common  superstition  of  the  period. 

"  It  was  the  old  dame  in  the  chimney-corner  at  the 
house  where  you  watched  last  night,"  said  the  child. 
"  But  she  fancied  me  asleep  while  she  was  talking  of  it. 
She  said  that  a  thousand  and  a  thousand  people  had  met 
him  here,  and  had  written  in  his  book,  and  have  his  mark 
on  them.  And  that  ugly-tempered  lady,  old  Mistress  Hib- 
bins,  was  one.  And,  mother,  the  old  dame  said  that  this 
scarlet  letter  was  the  Black  Man's  mark  on  thee,  and  that 
it  glows  like  a  red  flame  when  thou  meetest  him  at  mid 
night,  here  in  the  dark  wood.  Is  it  true,  mother  ?  And 
dost  thou  go  to  meet  him  in  the  night-time  ?  " 

"  Didst  thou  ever  awake,  and  find  thy  mother  gone  ?  " 
asked  Hester. 

"  Not  that  I  remember,"  said  the  child.  "  If  thou  fear- 
est  to  leave  me  in  the  cottage,  thou  mightest  take  me  along 
with  thee.  I  would  very  gladly  go !  But,  mother,  tell  me 
now !  Is  there  such  a  Black  Man  ?  And  didst  thou  ever 
meet  him  ?  And  is  this  his  mark  ?  " 

"  Wilt  thou  let  me  be  at  peace,  if  I  once  tell  thee  ?  " 
asked  her  mother. 

"Yes,  if  thou  tellest  me  all,"  answered  Pearl. 

"  Once  in  my  life,  I  met  the  Black  Man  !  "  said  her 
mother.  "  This  scarlet  letter  is  his  mark." 

THE  SCAULKT  LETTER. 


88  NATHANIEL    HAWTHORNE. 


THE  ARCHED    WINDOW. 

CLIFFORD  sat  at  the  window,  with  Hepzibah,  watching 
the  neighbors  as  they  stepped  into  the  street.  All  of 
them,  however  unspiritual  on  other  days,  were  transfig 
ured  by  the  Sabbath  influence ;  so  that  their  very  gar 
ments —  whether  it  were  an  old  man's  decent  coat,  well 
brushed  for  the  thousandth  time,  or  a  little  boy's  first 
sack  and  trousers,  finished  yesterday  by  his  mother's 
needle  —  had  somewhat  of  the  quality  of  ascension-robes. 
Forth,  likewise,  from  the  portal  of  the  old  house,  stepped 
Phoebe,  putting  up  her  small  green  sunshade,  and  throw 
ing  upward  a  glance  and  smile  of  parting  kindness  to  the 
faces  at  the  arched  window.  In  her  aspect  there  was  a 
familiar  gladness,  and  a  holiness  that  you  could  play 
with,  and  yet  reverence  it  as  much  as  ever.  She  was  like 
a  prayer,  offered  up  in  the  homeliest  beauty  of  the  mother- 
tongue.  Fresh  was  Phoebe,  moreover,  and  airy  and  sweet 
in  her  apparel ;  as  if  nothing  that  she  wore  —  neither  her 
gown,  nor  her  small  straw  bonnet,  nor  her  little  kerchief, 
any  more  than  her  snowy  stockings  —  had  ever  been  put 
on  before ;  or,  if  worn,  were  all  the  fresher  for  it,  and 
with  a  fragrance  as  if  they  had  lain  among  the  rose-buds. 

The  girl  waved  her  hand  to  Hepzibah  and  Clifford,  and 
went  up  the  street ;  a  religion  in  herself,  warm,  simple, 
true,  with  a  substance  that  could  walk  on  earth,  and  a 
spirit  that  was  capable  of  heaven. 

"  Hepzibah,"  asked  Clifford,  after  watching  Phoebe  to 
the  corner,  "  do  you  never  go  to  church  ? " 

"  No,  Clifford  !  "  she  replied,  "  not  these  many,  many 
years ! " 

"Were  I  to  be  there,"  he  rejoined,  "it  seems  to  me  that 


EXTRACTS.  89 

I  could  pray  once  more,  when  so  many  human  souls  were 
praying  all  around  me  !  " 

She  looked  into  Clifford's  face,  and  beheld  there  a  soft 
natural  effusion  ;  for  his  heart  gushed  out,  as  it  were,  and 
ran  over  at  his  eyes,  in  delightful  reverence  for  God,  and 
kindly  affection  for  his  human  brethren.  The  emotion 
communicated  itself  to  Hepzibah.  She  yearned  to  take 
him  by  the  hand,  and  go  and  kneel  down,  they  two 
together,  —  both  so  long  separate  from  the  world,  and,  as 
she  now  recognized,  scarcely  friends  with  Him  above,  — 
to  kneel  down  among  the  people,  and  be  reconciled  to  God 
and  man  at  once. 

"Dear  brother,"  said  she  earnestly,  "let  us  go!  We 
belong  nowhere.  We  have  not  a  foot  of  space  in  any 
church  to  kneel  upon ;  but  let  us  go  to  some  place  of 
worship,  even  if  we  stand  in  the  broad  aisle.  Poor  and 
forsaken  as  we  are,  some  pew-door  will  be  open  to  us ! " 

So  Hepzibah  and  her  brother  made  themselves  ready,  — 
as  ready  as  they  could,  in  the  best  of  their  old-fashioned 
garments,  which  had  hung  on  pegs,  or  been  laid  away  in 
trunks,  so  long  that  the  dampness  and  mouldy  smell  of 
the  past  was  on  them,  —  made  themselves  ready,  in  their 
faded  bettermost,  to  go  to  church.  They  descended  the 
staircase  together,  • —  gaunt,  sallow  Hepzibah,  and  pale, 
emaciated,  age-stricken  Clifford !  They  pulled  open  the 
front  door,  and  stepped  across  the  threshold,  and  felt,  both 
of  them,  as  if  they  were  standing  in  the  presence  of  the 
whole  world,  and  with  mankind's  great  and  terrible  eye 
on  them  alone.  The  eye  of  their  Father  seemed  to  be 
withdrawn,  and  gave  them  no  encouragement.  The  warm 
sunny  air  of  the  street  made  them  shiver.  Their  hearts 
quaked  within  them  at  the  idea  of  taking  one  step  further. 


90  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

"  It  cannot  be,  Hepzibah !  —  it  is  too  late,"  said  Clifford, 
with  deep  sadness.  "  We  are  ghosts  !  We  have  no  right 
among  human  beings,  —  no  right  anywhere,  but  in  this  old 
house,  which  has  a  curse  on  it,  and  which  therefore  we  are 
doomed  to  haunt !  And,  besides,"  he  continued,  with  a  fas 
tidious  sensibility,  inalienably  characteristic  of  the  man, 
"  it  would  not  be  fit  nor  beautiful  to  go !  It  is  an  ugly 
thought,  that  I  should  be  frightful  to  my  fellow-beings, 
and  that  children  should  cling  to  their  mothers'  gowns, 
at  sight  of  me." 

They  shrank  back  into  the  dusky  passage-way,  and 
closed  the  door.  But,  going  up  the  staircase  again,  they 
found  the  whole  interior  of  the  house  tenfold  more  dis 
mal,  and  the  air  closer  and  heavier,  for  the  glimpse  and 
breath  of  freedom  which  they  had  just  snatched.  They 
could  not  flee  ;  their  jailer  had  but  left  their  door  ajar,  in 
mockery,  and  stood  behind  it,  to  watch  them  stealing  out. 
At  the  threshold,  they  felt  his  pitiless  gripe  upon  them. 
For  what  other  dungeon  is  so  dark  as  one's  own  heart ! 
What  jailer  so  inexorable  as  one's  self  ! 

THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEVEN  GABLES. 

It  is  a  marvel  whence  this  perfect  flower  [the  white  pond- 
lily]  derives  its  loveliness  and  perfume,  springing  as  it  does 
from  the  black  mud  over  which  the  river  sleeps,  and  where 
lurk  the  slimy  eel  and  speckled  frog  and  the  mud  turtle, 
whom  continual  washing  cannot  cleanse.  It  is  the  very 
same  black  mud  out  of  which  the  yellow  lily  sucks  its  ob 
scene  life  and  noisome  odor.  Thus  we  see,  too,  in  the  world 
that  some  persons  assimilate  only  what  is  ugly  and  evil 
from  the  same  moral  circumstances  which  supply  good  and 
beautiful  results  —  the  fragrance  of  celestial  flowers  —  to 
the  daily  life  of  others.  MOSSES  FROM  AN  OLD  MANSE. 


REFERENCES.  91 


BEFEKENCES. 

George  Parsons  Lathrop's  Study  of  Hawthorne. 

Henry  James's  Hawthorne. 

Julian  Hawthorne's  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  and  His  Wife. 

Moncure  Comvay's  Hawthorne. 

James  T.  Fields's  Yesterdays  with  Authors. 

Horatio  Bridge's  Personal  Recollections  of  Hawthorne  (Eight  Illustra 
tions)  . 

Mary  Russell  Mitford's  Recollections  of  a  Literary  Life. 

Higginsoii's  Short  Studies  of  American  Authors. 

Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  II.,  chap.  x. 

Holmes's  "Reminiscences  of  Hawthorne,"  in  Soundings  from  the 
Atlantic. 

H.  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of 'Great  Authors. 

Conway's  Emerson  at  Home  and  Abroad  (Chapter  on  Nathaniel  and 
Sophia  Hawthorne). 

Samuel  Smiles' s  Brief  Biographies. 

Article  by  R.  H.  Stoddard  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 

Leslie  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library. 

Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 

Griswold's  Prose  Writers  of  America. 

"Whipple's  Character  and  Characteristic  Men. 

H.  T.  Tuckermaii's  Mental  Portraits. 

Poe's  Literati. 

O'Connor's  The  Ilaivthorne  Index. 

Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

Welsh's  Development  of  English  Literature  and  Language.    Vol.  II. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  VI. 

Appletons'  American  Biography. 

Allihone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 

G.  "W.  Curtis's  Literary  and  Social  Essays. 

R.  H.  Hutton's  Essays  in  Literary  Criticism. 

Cyclopaedias  of  English  and  American  Literature. 

Text-books  and  Histories  of  American  Literature. 

G.  W.  Curtis's  Homes  of  American  Authors. 

G.  B.  Loring's  History  of  Essex  County,  Massachusetts. 


92  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

Margaret  Sidney's  Old  Concord  :  Her  Highways  and  Byways. 

Bartlett's  Concord  Guide. 

Theodore  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 

The  New  England  Magazine.  November,  1893  ("  Homes  and  Haunts 
of  Hawthorne."  Illustrated). 

Harper's  Magazine.  October,  1872  (An  illustrated  biographical  sketch 
by  R.  H.  Stoddard).  July,  1881.  July,  1886.  (Portrait  of  Haw 
thorne.)  August,  1894  (Howells's  "  My  First  Visit  to  New  Eng 
land  "). 

The  Atlantic  Monthly.  May,  1860.  July,  1862.  July,  1864.  January, 
1868. 

The  North  American  Review.     October,  1864  (Article  by  G.  AV.  Curtis). 

The  Century  Magazine.    January,  1888.    May,  1884.    May,  1886. 

The  Ladies'  Home  Journal.  March,  1894  (Illustrated  article  by  Rose 
Hawthorne  Lathrop  on  her  father's  literary  methods). 

St.  Nicholas.    March,  1895. 


OUTLINE   OF  HIS  LIFE.  93 


OUTLINE    OF    HIS    LIFE. 

July  4,  1804. 
May  19,  1864. 

Birth  in  Salem,  Mass.,  on  Independence  Day. 

Contrast  this  fact  with  Hawthorne's  temperament  and  life. 
27   Union  Street.      House   still   standing,    and   the   birth-room 

shown  to  interested  visitors.     (South-west  corner  of  third 

story. ) 

Ancestors.     "  Hawthorne's  literary  offspring." 

Strict  Puritans.     Persecutors  of  Quakers  and  witches. 

"  The  best  compensation   for  their  lives  was  when  they  were 

turned  into  gloomily  picturesque  figures  by  the  art  of  their 

descendant,  and  the  blood  shed  by  their  thorns  tinted  the 

blossoms  of  Hawthorne."  —  CONWAY. 
William  llathorne  (Nathaniel  inserted  the  w  in  the  name)  came 

to  Dorchester,   Mass.,   in   10.30.     His  son   John  was   chief 

judge  in  the  witch  trials  at  Salem. 
Father. 

A  sea-captain,  like  his  forefathers. 

Fond  of  books  and  of  children.     Serious,  reticent. 

Died   of   yellow   fever   at   Surinam,  when  Nathaniel  was   four 

years   old ;    the   boy's   consequent   life   with    the   mother's 

family,  the  Mannings,  on  Herbert  Street. 
Mother. 

Elizabeth  Clark  Manning,  of  Salem. 

For  a  woodcut  of  her  face,  consult  The  Ladies'1  Home  Journal, 

March,  1894.    - 

A  beautiful,  sensitive,  singularly  pure  woman,  of  fine  gifts. 
Shut  herself  in  the  house  for  thirty  years  after  her  husband's 

death. 
Read  Hawthorne's  story,    "The   Wives  of   the   Dead."      (The 

Snow  Image  and  other  Twice-Told  Tales.} 


94  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

The  only  Son  in  a  family  of  three  children. 

"Beautiful  and  bright  boy,  indulged  not  only  by  his  mother, 
but  by  all  his  uncles  and  aunts." 

Hawthorne  considered  that  his  elder  sister  had  more  genius 
than  himself.  Like  her  mother,  she  lived  a  life  of  seclu 
sion;  on  her  brother's  death  she  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  attend  the  funeral. 

Solitary  Childhood  and  Youth. 

Due  to  his  mother's  retirement,  his  own  melancholy  tempera 
ment,  the  quietness  of  his  native  city,  and  his  frequent 

absences  at  Eaymond,  Me. 
Early  Reading. 

Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Thomson,  Milton,  Shakespeare, 

Pope,  Johnson's  Idler. 
First    book    bought   with    his    own    money,   Spenser's    Faerie 

Queene. 
Before  fourteen  years  of  age,  he  had  read  all  of  the  Waverley 

novels. 
He  liked  to  invent  strange,  wild  stories,  ending  them  always 

with   the   words,    "And   I'm   never  coming   back   again." 

(Effect  of  his  father's  death  far  from  home  ?) 
His  favorite   declamatory   line,   before   he   could   talk  plainly, 

was  (from  Richard  III.)  — 

"Stand  back,  my  Lord,  and  let  the  coffin  pass." 
For   an   illustrated    article   on  Hawthorne's  boyhood,  see    The 

Wide  Awake  for  November,  1891. 
Housed  by  an  accident  (lameness  resulting  from  an  injury  received 

when  playing  base-ball),  and  for  two  years  taught  privately 

by  the  lexicographer,  Joseph  Worcester. 

Removal  of  Family  to  Raymond,  Me.,  in  1818,  to  live  with  Mrs. 
Hawthorne's  brother. 

A  wild,  woody  country.     Out-door  life  for  one  year. 

Home  near  Sebago  Lake,  on  the  borders  of  which  Hawthorne 
spent  many  hours,  falling  into  his  "cursed  habit  of  soli 
tude." 

On  the  death  of  Mr.  Manning,  the  home  was  converted  into 
a  "  free  meeting-house." 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  95 

Return  to  the  Herbert  Street  home  (Number  10),  Salem. 
Issue  of  a  Weekly  Paper,  The  Spectator.     A  few  numbers. 
Bowdoin   College,   Brunswick,    Me.      1821-1825.      (See    Scribner's 

Magazine,  May,  1876,  illustrated  article.) 
Hawthorne  went  to  Brunswick  via   stage-coach  from  Salem, 

and  Franklin  Pierce  was  a  fellow-passenger. 
Expenses  largely  defrayed  by  his  uncle,  Robert  Manning. 
Intimate  Friend.    Franklin  Pierce,  in  the  class  above  him. 
Hanked  number  eighteen  in  a  class  of  thirty-eight. 
Excelled  in  English  and  Latin  composition. 
Enjoyed  the  languages,  and  gave  considerable  time  to  general 

reading. 

Disliked   mathematics  and   physics,   and  refused  to  submit  to 
any  exercises  in  declamation.     (This  refusal  deprived  him 
of  a  commencement  part.) 
Wrote  one  poem,  Moonlight,  and  a  few  other  verses. 

See  Bridge's  Recollections  of  Hawthorne,  pp.  35,  37;  and 

Lathrop,  p.  122. 
Paradise    Spring,    now    called    Hawthorne    Brook,    a    favorite 

resort. 

NOTK. — The  year  Hawthorne  entered  Bowdoin,  Bryant  pub 
lished   his  first  volume   of   poems,  and   Cooper  his   novel, 
The  Spy. 
Some  Classmates. 

Henry  W.  Longfellow  and  his  brother  Stephen. 

"Longfellow   used   to   talk  in  poetry  when   his   early 
days  at  Bowdoin  with  Hawthorne  were  the  theme." 
J.  S.  C.  Abbott,  a  clergyman  and  a  writer. 
George   B.  Cheever,  an  early  Abolitionist  and  worker  in 

the  cause  of  temperance. 
Edward  Preble,  son  of  Commodore  Preble. 
Horatio  Bridge,  Paymaster-General  of  the  U.  S.  Navy  for 

twenty  years,  including  those  of  the  Civil  War. 
For    a    description    of    Hawthorne's   college    life,    consult 

Bridge's  Recollections. 
Literary  Product  of  life  at  Bowdoin.     Fanshawc. 

"A  pleasant,  old-fashioned  little  romance,  of  an  idealized 
Bowdoin." 


96  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

Published   anonymously  in   1828,  and  soon   suppressed   by 

the  writer.     It  was  not  reissued  until  187G. 
For  sketch  of  the  story,  consult  Lathrop,  pp.  127-132. 

Renewal  of  Life  in  Salem. 

A  recluse  for  twelve  years.     Calls  himself  "  the  obscurest  man 

of  letters  in  America." 
Said   to   have   read   at  this   time   all  the  books  in  the  Salem 

Athenaeum  Library. 

Early  Publications  Unsuccessful. 

Contributes  to  Periodicals  sketches,  collected  later  as  Twice-Told 
Tales. 

Stories,  partly  true  and  partly  fictitious,  of  Colonial  New 
England. 

Their  power  recognized  by  his  neighbors,  the  three  Peabody 
sisters. 

As  book,  brought  out  by  Samuel  G.  Goodrich,  known  to  the 
literary  public  by  the  pseudonym  Peter  Parley. 

Longfellow  reviews  the  book  appreciatively  in  The  North  Ameri 
can  Eevieio.  (July,  1837.) 

Weigher  and  Gauger  at  the  Boston  Custom  House.     1839. 

Appointed   by  George  Bancroft,   the   historian,  then   collector 

of  the  port.     Salary,  $1,200. 

Filled  the  position  ably,  although  it  was  not  to  his  taste. 
Deposed  by  Harrison.     (Whig  party.) 
Experiences  described  in  his  Note  Books. 

Life    at    Brook    Farm,    West   Eoxbury,    Mass.      1841.      A    second 

"  Golden  Age." 

(See  notes  on  Transcendentalism,  under  Emerson.) 
Invests  a  thousand  dollars  in  the  experiment. 
Health  delicate.     Overworks  physically. 
Not  in  sympathy  with  the  other  Socialists. 
Has  an  antipathy  for  Margaret  Fuller. 

Eecords  his  life  here  in  his  novel,   The  Blithedalc  Romance. 
"I  went  to  live  in  Arcady,  and  found  myself  up  to  the  chin 

in  a  barnyard." 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  97 

Marriage  to  Sophia  Peabody,  of  Salem,  1842.     An  ideal  union. 
"If  you  want  a  new  feeling  in  this  weary  life,  get  married. 
It  renews  the  world  from  the  surface  to  the  centre."  — 
HAWTHORNE  in  a  letter  to  Bridge. 

"  Every  true  family  is  a  solar  system   that  outshines  all  the 
solar  systems   in  space  and  time." — -Mus.  HAWTHORNE 
to  Horatio  Bridge. 
Mrs.   Hawthorne  was   a   superior  woman,   and   a   sympathetic 

helper  in  her  husband's  literary  career. 

The  Peabody  Sisters.     (Their   father,   a  cultured   Salem  phy 
sician.) 

Elizabeth,  the  philanthropist  and  "saintly  abbess  of  Con 
cord." 
Sophia.     A  favorite  pupil  in  the  studio  of  Washington  All- 

ston. 

Mary.     Mrs.  Horace  Mann,  who  aided  her  husband  consid 
erably  in   his   educational  work,   and  wrote  after  his 
death  an  excellent  memoir  of  him. 
Consult  Julian  Hawthorne's  Hawthorne  and  Ills  Wife. 

Edits  the  African  Journal  of  his  friend,  Horatio  Bridge. 

Life  in  Concord  at  the  Historic  Manse. 

"Created  by  Providence  expressly  for  our  use."     "Our  Eden." 
Three  years  "  devoted  to  literature  and  happiness  ; "  troubled 

only  by  limited  means  because  of  the  tardy  payment  of 

debts  due  him. 
Neighbors.      Emerson.      Thoreau.     The  Alcotts.     Ellery  Chan- 

ning. 

Una  Hawthorne  born  here. 
Writes  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse.     Describes  his  home  in  its 

Introduction. 
Read  Notes  on  the  Manse,  under  Emerson's  Homes. 

Surveyor  in  the   Salem  Custom-House,    at    the    time   of    Salem's 

importance  as  a  seaport.     1846-1849. 
The  appointment  to  office   "  ended   his  poverty,   but  also  his 

paradise." 
Popular  and  faithful. 


98  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

Begins  The  Scarlet  Letter,  and  in  its  Introduction  delineates 
strongly  his  fellow-officials. 

A  Second  Loss  of  Office  with  change  of  political  party. 

When  in  his  dejected  mood  he  said  to  his  wife,  "I  am  removed 
from  office,"  she  replied  by  putting  pen,  ink,  and  paper 
before  him,  with  the  words,  "Now  you  can  write  your 
book." 

Removal  to  Lenox,  Mass.     One  year's  residence. 

His  "ugly  little  red  farmhouse,"  destroyed  by  fire,  and  repro 
duced  in  1893. 

On  the  banks  of  a  small  lake,  called  Stockbridge  Bowl. 

Near  the  Plunkett  House,  Pittsfield  (which  contained  Long 
fellow's  "Clock  on  the  Stairs"),  the  Bryant  House  at 
Barrington,  Holmes' s  ancestral  estate,  the  home  of  Fanny 
Kemble  Butler,  and  that  of  the  Sedgwicks. 

Daughter  Rose  born  at  this  time. 

Rural  Life.  "  We  have  become  so  intimately  acquainted  with 
every  individual  of  them  [the  chickens],  that  it  really 
seems  like  cannibalism  to  think  of  eating  them." 

Writes  here  The  House  of  Seven  Gables,  The  Wonder  Book  for 
Boys  and  Girls  (three  hundred  pages  written  in  seven 
weeks),  and  begins  The  Blithedale  Romance. 

See  article,  "  The  Hawthornes  in  Lenox,"  in  The  Century 
Magazine  for  November,  1894;  also,  "Reminiscences  of 
Literary  Berkshire,"  in  the  same  magazine,  August,  1895 
(illustrated)  ;  Theodore  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 

Brief  Residence  at  West   Newton,   Mass.,   in  the    Horace    Mann 

house. 

Finishes  here  The  Blithedale  Romance,  and  writes  The  Snow 
Image  and  Other  Twice  Told  Tales. 

Return  to  Concord  and  Purchase  of  "The  Wayside."     1852. 

"I  sat  down  to  write  by  the  wayside  of  life,  like  a  man  under 
enchantment,  and  a  shrubbery  sprang  up  around  me,  and 
the  bushes  grew  to  be  saplings,  and  the  saplings  became 
trees,  until  no  exit  appeared  possible  through  the  entan 
gling  depths  of  my  obscurity." 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  99 

The  grounds  were  beautified  for  him  by  Bronson  Alcott  and 

Thoreau. 
Thoreau   remarked    to   Hawthorne   that   the   house   was   once 

occupied   by   a   man   who   believed   that   he   should   never 

die.     This  suggested  Hawthorne's  story,  Septimius  Felton. 
Writes  a  Campaign  Document  for  Franklin  Pierce  when  candidate 

for  the  Presidency. 
"  After  a  friendship  of  thirty  years,  it  was  impossible  to  refuse 

my  best  efforts  in  his  behalf  at  this,  the  great  pinch  of 

his  life." 
Party-serving  spirit  unjustly  attributed  to  him. 

Consul  at  Liverpool  from  1853  to  1857  ;  then  a  high  position. 

Now  for  the  first  time  in  easy  circumstances. 

Shows  at  the  expense  of  his  inadequate  income  many  kind 
nesses  to  unfortunate  countrymen.  (Note  especially  his 
friendly  conduct  toward  Delia  Bacon.) 

Gathers  material  for  his  English  Note  Books  and  Our  Old 
Home.  Dedicates  the  latter  to  Pierce,  to  the  consterna 
tion  of  its  publisher. 

Not  a  congenial  life  to  him.  "When  my  successor  arrived,  I 
drew  the  long,  delightful  breath  which  first  made  me  thor 
oughly  sensible  what  an  unnatural  life  I  had  been  leading." 

Two  Years'  Travel  with  his  family  in  Europe,  mostly  in  Italy. 
Acquaintance  with  Hiram  Powers,  the  Brownings,  the  Storys, 

the  Trollopes,  and  John  Lothrop  Motley. 
Material  for  his  Italian  Note  Book  and  The  Marble  Faun. 

Closing  Years  in  Concord,  at  The  Wayside. 

Family  illnesses  and  national  disturbances. 

Sudden  death  (as  desired  by  him),  May  19,  1864,  while  asleep,  at  the 
Pemigewasset  House,  Plymouth,  N.  H.,  when  travelling  to 
the  White  Mountains  for  his  health,  accompanied  by  his 
devoted  friend,  Franklin  Pierce,  then  a  widower  and 
childless. 
See  Pierce's  descriptive  letter  in  Bridge's  Recollections,  pp. 

176-179. 

"  The  memory  of  President  Pierce  has  lost  some  stains  through 
his  jifelong  devotion  to  his  early  friend." 


•100  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

Burial. 

The   unfinished   MS.   of    The  Dollivcr  Romance  and  a  wreath 

of  apple-blossoms  from  the  Old  Manse  were  laid  upon  his 

coffin. 

Head  Longfellow's  poem,  "Hawthorne." 
Services.     Conducted  by  the  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  who 

had  married  him  twenty-two  years  before. 
Emerson,    Longfellow,    Lowell,    Holmes,    Whipple,    Channing, 

Alcott,   Agassiz,   and  Pierce   were    among    the    mourners 

present. 

Resting  Place.     Sleepy  Hollow,  Concord,  Mass.     Ridge  Path. 

Under  a  group  of  pines.     Near  Emerson  and  Thoreau. 

Grave  fenced  in  1891  because  of  mutilations  for  "relics." 

For  views,  consult  Bridge's  Recollections,  p.  180,  Uarpcr  for 
October,  1872,  or  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal  for  March, 
1894. 

His  wife  and  Una  lie  buried  in  Kensal  Green  Cemetery,  Lon 
don,  near  Thackeray  and  Leigh  Hunt.  Fanny  Kemble 
Butler,  Hawthorne's  friend  and  neighbor  when  in  Lenox, 
lies  in  the  same  God's  acre,  by  the  side  of  her  father, 
the  actor. 

Hawthorne's  Family. 

His    Wife.      Literary   and    artistic.      Hawthorne    became    ac 
quainted  with  her  through  her  illustrations  of  his  story, 
The  Gentle  Boy.     She  believed  fully  in  his  inspirations. 
Children. 

Una.  Died  unmarried.  After  her  father's  death  she  de 
ciphered,  with  the  help  of  Robert  Browning,  the  MS. 
of  Sei>timius  Felton,  and  had  it  published  in  The 
Atlantic  Monthly. 

Rose.  An  artist.  Married  to  George  Parsons  Lathrop, 
author  of  Spanish  Vistas,  A  Study  of  Hawthorne,  and 
several  novels.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lathrop  are  members 
of  the  Church  of  the  Paulist  Fathers,  New  York. 
Julian.  A  novelist,  essayist,  and  author  of  a  text-book  on 
American  literature.  Julian's  daughter  llildcgarde  is 
a  writer  of  novelettes. 


OUTLINE  OF  UIS   LIFE.  101' 

Autobiographic  Glimpses  of  Hawthorne. 

Note  Books.  Introduction  to  The  Scarlet  Letter.  The  Old 
Manse  in  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse.  The  Gentle  Boy. 
The  Devil  in  Manuscript.  Footprints  by  the  Seashore. 
Blithedale  Romance.  Our  Old  Home. 

His  Politics.     (Like  those  of  his  father.) 

"  A  Democrat  before  the  Rebellion,  a  War  Democrat  after  it 

broke   out."      Ostracized    from  Salem  society  because  of 

this. 

"  I.  had  no  kindred  with,  nor  leanings  toward,  the  Abolition 
ists." 
He  thought  the  war  might  have  been  avoided  ;  advocated  a 

separation,  an  "amputation." 
His    opinions    were    expressed    in    The  Atlantic   Monthly  for 

July,  1862  ("Chiefly  about  War  Matters"). 
When,  in  Liverpool,  he  saw  that  the  Civil  War  was  inevitable, 

he  told  a  friend  that  he  "meant  to  go  home  and  die  with 

the  Republic." 
Consult  Bridge,  pp.  155,  165-170. 

Character. 

Taciturn,  shy,  melancholy  (rarely  laughed),  distrustful  of  self, 
restless,  gentle  ;  a  lover  of  solitude  and  of  out-door  life  (he 
walked  much  and  rapidly).  "  A  November  nature  with  a 
name  of  May."  — LOWELL.  "He  is  like  a  dim  room  with 
a  little  taper  of  personality  burning  on  the  corner  of  the 
mantel."  — HOLMES. 

A  charming  playmate  to  his  children. 

"  His  reserve  was  the  reserve  of  self-respect,  not  of  pride  or 
timidity." 

"  From  the  first  moment  of  our  acquaintance,  I  never  knew 
him  to  utter  an  unmanly  sentiment,  or  to  do  a  mean  or 
unkind  act." — HORATIO  BRIDGE. 

"The  high  qualities  of  his  genius  were  well  matched  by  those 
of  character." 

Manners. 

Self-respecting,  reserved,  gracious,  kindly. 


102  NATHANIEL   HAWTHOENE. 

Appearance  and  Voice. 

Erect,  full,  shapely,  and  commanding  figure.  Noticeably  hand 
some.  Expressive  face  with  regular  features.  Massive 
forehead  and  brow.  Dark  locks.  "  The  most  wonderful 
eyes  in  the  world,  searching  as  lightning,  and  unfathom 
able  as  night." 

"  His  bearing  was  modestly  grand,  and  his  voice  touched  the 
ear  like  a  melody." 


APPELLATIONS.  103 


APPELLATIONS. 

AMERICA'S  PROSE  POET. 

A  WORDSWORTH  IN  PROSE. 

A  ROMANCER  WITHOUT  A  PEER. 

A  PROFOUND  ANATOMIST  OF  THE  HEART. 

A  LITERARY  ARTIST  AND  ART  CRITIC. 

A  CREATOR,  NOT  A  FOLLOWER. 

A  DWELLER  AMONG  VISIONS. 

THE  RAREST  GENIUS  AMERICA  HAS  GIVEN  TO  LITERATURE. 

THE  PATIENT  AND  MASTERFUL  OBSERVER  AND  CHRONICLER. 

THE  GREATEST  IMAGINATIVE  WRITER  SINCE  SHAKESPEARE. 

AN  ALLEGORIST  OF  THE  CONSCIENCE. 

MORALIST  OF  MORALISTS. 

THE  REMBRANDT  OF  AMERICA'S  WORD-PAINTERS. 

THE  POUSSIN  OF  OUR  UNRHYMED  POETRY. 

THE  WEAVER  OF  THE  SCARLET  WEB. 

THE  IDEAL  REALIST. 

THE  NOVELIST  OF  THE  PURITAN. 

THE  LAST  WIZARD  OF  SALEM. 

A  PIONEER  AND  MASTER  OF  REALISM. 

THE  DELINEATOR  OF  EARLY  NEW  ENGLAND  LIFE. 

HAWTHORNE  THE  ONLY. 


104  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WETTINGS. 

Their  Nature. 

Intensely  imaginative  and  weird. 

"Hawthorne  rarely  gained  any  hint  from  any  other  imagination." 

"  Hawthorne  had  a  predilection  for  the  remote,  the  shadowy,  the 

vague."    He  loved  to  deal  with  questions  of  conscience. 
"His  narratives  are  one- tenth  matter  and  nine-tenths  spirit." 
The  plot  is  always  a  subordinate  feature. 
"His  writings  are  overcast  with  the  pain  of  a  heart  held  under  a 

necessity  to  expose  its  inmost  recesses  to  the  world."  —  CON- 

VAY. 

Style. 
.    Pure,  clear,  harmonious,  suggestive. 

Whittier  regarded  Hawthorne  as  the  greatest  master  of  the  English 
language. 

An  excellent  model  for  study. 

"  It  is  the  result  of  a  great  deal  of  practice.  It  is  a  desire  to  tell  the 
simple  truth  as  honestly  and  as  vividly  as  one  can."  —  HAW 
THORNE. 

"  There  was  no  conception  so  daring  that  he  shrank  from  attempt 
ing  it ;  and  none  that  he  could  not  so  master  as  to  state  it,  if  he 
pleased,  in  terms  of  monosyllables."  — HIGGINSON. 

The  Scarlet  Letter.    1850.     A  romance  of  sin. 
"  The  New  England  Epic." 
Made  the  writer  famous.    (Hawthorne  was  then  forty-five  years  of 

age.) 

Written  in  Salem  (when  the  author  was  living  at  14  Mall  Street). 
Scene  laid  in  Boston. 

Unparalleled  in  imaginative  prose  writing. 
As  fiction,  comparable  in  uniqueness  only  with  Holmes's  story,  Elsie 

Venner.     "  Two  great  pieces  of  imaginative  art  in  New  England 

[The  Scarlet  Letter  and  Elsie  Venner]  came  from   the  Bible 

when  its  altar-chain  was  broken." 
Teaching  of  the  tale.    The  effect  of  sin  upon  opposite  natures. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  105 

Introduction.    A  graphic  description  of  the  inmates  of  the  Salem 
Custom-House  when  Hawthorne  entered  it.     (Gave  offence 
to  many  residents  of  his  native  city.) 
Note  the  sketch  of  himself  as  surveyor. 

The  germ  of  the  romance  is  found  in  Hawthorne's  short  story, 
Endicott  and  the  Red  Cross. 

Such  a  symbol  as  the  scarlet  letter  was  once  worn  hy  a  young  woman 
in  the  early  days  of  New  England's  history. 

The  first  edition,  five  thousand  copies,  sold  in  two  weeks. 

"  The  publisher  speaks  of  it  in  tremendous  terms  of  approbation. 
So  does  Mrs.  Hawthorne,  to  whom  I  read  the  conclusion  last 
snight.  It  broke  her  heart,  and  sent  her  to  bed  with  a  grievous 
headache,  which  I  look  upon  as  a  triumphant  success."  —  HAW 
THORNE. 

Mrs.  Hawthorne  says  that,  before  this  story  was  finished,  a  knot  was 
visible  in  her  husband's  forehead,  due  to  his  intense  thought. 

Emerson  exclaimed,  upon  finishing  the  book,  "Ghastly!  " 

Dramatized  in  1892.  Arranged  in  operatic  form  by  "Walter  Dam- 
rosch,  1894. 

Manuscript  discovered  by  James  T.  Fields.  (See  Fields's  Yester 
days  with  Authors.) 

Read  article  in  The  North  American  Review  for  July,  1850. 

An  engraving  of  George  H.  Boughton's  "  Hester  Prynne  and  Pearl " 
may  be  seen  in  the  Appleton  Art  Journal  for  1877. 

Illustrated  edition.      Artist,  Mary  Hallock  Foote. 

Darley's  Twelve  Compositions  in  Outline  from  The  Scarlet  Letter. 
Folio  size.  ($10.00.) 

"I  snatch  the  book,  along  whose  burning  leaves 
His  scarlet  web  our  wild  romancer  weaves." 

HOLMES. 

The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables.  A  romance  of  heredity.  A  story  of 
retribution. 

Written  in  Lenox  in  about  five  months. 

Scene  laid  in  Salem. 

Idea  suggested  by  the  curse  invoked  on  John  Hathorne  by  a  faint 
ing  witch. 

Hawthorne  considered  this  better  than  The  Scarlet  Letter. 

This  work  contains  more  humor  than  the  other  tales. 

"An  impression  of  a  summer  afternoon  in  an  elm-shadowed  New 
England  town." 

See  article  in  The  North  American  Review,  January,  1853. 


106  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

The  Blithedale  Romance.     A  story  of  the  Brook  Farm  experiment. 

Written  in  West  Newton. 

Scene  laid  at  Roxbury. 

The  tale  of  a  man  mastered  by  a  theory. 

The  catastrophe.  Suggested  by  the  suicide  by  drowning  of  Martha 
Hunt,  —  "  an  incident  of  the  transcendental  movement,"  — when 
Hawthorne  was  a  member  of  the  Farm  community. 

Heroine.  Zenobia,  the  romancer's  finest  woman  creation.  Possesses 
many  of  Margaret  Fuller's  traits. 

Hero.    Miles  Coverdale.    Hawthorne  himself. 

Consult  The  North  American  Review,  January,  1853. 

The  Marble  Faun ;  or,  The  Romance  of  Monte  Beni. 

Product  of  life  in  Italy.  "  Hawthorne  changed  his  skies,  not  his 
soul,  when  he  crossed  the  sea." 

Written  in  Florence  and  England  (Redcar,  Yorkshire,  and  Leam 
ington,  Warwickshire). 

Scene  laid  in  Rome.  A  good  tourist's  companion  for  one  visiting 
that  city. 

Published  in  England  under  the  title,  Transformation. 

The  only  one  of  Hawthorne's  novels  not  American. 

Suggested  by  Praxiteles'  "  Faun,"  in  the  Capitoline  Museum,  Rome. 

Teaching.  Sin  may  become  a  powerful  factor  in  the  development 
of  mind  and  soul. 

Last  chapter.  Added  after  publication  of  the  book,  because  of  the 
many  demands  for  an  explanation  of  the  mysteries  in  the 
story. 

"Don't  read  it;  'tis  good  for  nothing.  The  story  isn't  meant  to 
be  explained;  'tis  cloud-land."  —  HAWTHORNE,  in  a  letter 
to  Henry  Bright. 

"  I  like  the  misty  way  in  which  the  story  is  indicated  rather  than 
revealed ;  the  outlines  are  quite  definite  enough  from  the  begin 
ning  to  the  end,  to  those  who  have  imagination  enough  to  follow 
you  in  your  airy  flights;  and,  to  those  who  complain,  I  suppose 
that  nothing  less  than  an  illustrated  edition,  with  a  large  gal 
lows  on  the  last  page,  with  Donatello  in  the  most  pensile  of  atti 
tudes,  —  his  ears  revealed  through  a  white  night-cap,  —  would 
be  satisfactory."  —  HENRY  L.  MOTLEY,  in  a  letter  to  Haw 
thorne. 

"Donatello  belongs  to  the  world  of  Caliban,  Puck,  and  Ariel." 

Somewhat  allegorical  in  nature.  Hilda  personifies  conscience; 
Miriam,  imagination ;  Donatello,  sense ;  Kenyon,  reason. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WHITINGS.  107 

ITikla.  Resembles  Miss  Shepard,  a  governess  in  the  Hawthorne 
family  when  they  were  travelling  in  Europe. 

Kenyon.  The  reputed  original  was  Thomas  Crawford,  sculptor,  and 
father  of  the  novelist,  Marion  Crawford. 

Its  criticisms  on  art.     Invaluable. 

Illustrated  edition.  Fifty  photogravures  of  sculpture,  painting,  etc., 
and  scenes  in  Rome.  ($6.00.) 

See  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  18G8;  and  Scribner's  Maga 
zine,  September,  1871. 

A  statue  of  Praxiteles'  "Faun"  was  given  to  Bowdoin  College  by 
the  class  of  1881. 

Notes  on  the  Four  Great  Romances. 

No  two  were  written  in  the  same  home. 

No  two  have  their  scenes  laid  in  the  same  city. 

Consult    Julian    Hawthorne's    article  on    the  scenes  of    these 

romances,  in  The  Century  Magazine,  July,  1884. 
The  number  of  characters  in  each  is  small  —  five  in  one,  and  but 

four  in  the  others. 

Three  are  American  stories ;  one,  Italian. 
"  Poe  did  not  find  Ghostland  itself  a  better  artistic  background  than 

Salem  or  Concord." 

Posthumous  Works.     Edited  by  his  wife  and  children. 
English  and  Italian  Note  Books. 
See  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1870;  Littell,  January-March, 

1869. 
Incomplete  "  Studies." 

The  Ancestral  Footstep. 

Dr.  Grimshawe's  Secret.    1882. 
Septimius  Felton ;  a  Romance  of  Immortality. 

Scene  laid  at  the  Wayside. 

Compare  the  hero  with  Goethe's  Faust. 

See  note  under  Hawthorne's  children. 

Consult  The  Atlantic  Monthly  for  October,  1872. 
The  Dolliver  Romance. 

The  "unfinished  Aladdin's  Tower,"  of  Longfellow's  poem. 

Note  the  humor  in  Hawthorne's  letter  to  Fields  about  this  tale, 
Yesterdays  with  Authors,  pp.  115,  116. 

Most  Characteristic  Short  Tales. 

Drowne's  Wooden  Image.  Young  Goodman  Brown.  The  Birth 
mark.  Wakefield.  Dr.  Heidegger's  Experiment.  The  Minis- 


108  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

ter's  Black  Veil.  (Mark  its  kinship  to  The  Scarlet  Letter.) 
Graves  and  Goblins.  Ethan  Brand  ("A  Hawthorne  micro 
cosm").  David  Swan. 

Most  Realistic  Tales. 

Sights  from  a  Steeple.  A  Rill  from  the  Town  Pump.  Little 
Annie's  Ramble.  Main  Street. 

Allegorical  Stories. 

The  Great  Stone  Face.  The  Great  Carbuncle.  The  Snow  Imago. 
The  Celestial  Railroad.  The  Bosom  Serpent.  The  Artist  of 
the  Beautiful.  A  Rill  from  the  Town  Pump.  The  Sister 
Years.  Drowne's  Wooden  Image.  Little  Daffydowndilly. 

Historical  New  England  Sketches. 

Endicott  and  the  Red  Cross.  Old  Ticonderoga.  Legends  of  the 
Province  House.  My  Kinsman  —  Major  Molineux.  The  May 
pole  of  Merrymount.  Old  News.  John  Eliot  and  His  Indian 
Bible.  The  Boston  Massacre. 

Stories  of  Earthly  Immortality. 

Septimius  Felton.     The  Dolliver  Romance. 

Stories  of  the  Elixir  of  Life. 

Dr.  Heidegger's  Experiment.     Dr.  Grimshawe's  Secret. 

Stories  for  Children. 

Grandfather's  Chair. 

Stories  from  New  England  history. 
A  Wonder  Book  for  Girls  and  Boys. 

Classic  myths,  —  The  Gorgon's  Head,  The  Golden  Touch,  The 
Miraculous  Pitcher,  and  others.  "Not  content  with  the 
Greek  myths,  Hawthorne  created  little  incidents  and  im 
possible  characters,  that  glance  in  and  out  with  elfin  grace." 
—  MRS.  WKIGHT. 
Two  illustrated  editions  are  published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin,  & 

Co.,  and  a  pamphlet  edition  for  school  use. 
True  Stories  from  History  and  Biography. 

Dr.   Johnson,   Benjamin  West,   Sir  Isaac   Newton,    Benjamin 

Franklin,  et  al. 
Our  Old  Home. 

Delightful  sketches  of  England. 
Made  from  his  English  noto-books. 
Compare  with  Emerson's  English  Traits. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  109 

Tanglewood  Talcs.    A  second  Wonder  Book. 

"  I  never  did  anything  so  well  as  those  baby  stories." 
"The  writer,  if  he  succeeds  in  pleasing  his  little  readers,  may 
hope  to  be  remembered  by  them  till  their  old  age,  —  a  far 
longer  period  of  literary  existence  than  is  generally  attained 
by  those  who  seek  immortality  from  the  judgment  of  full- 
grown  men."  —  Preface  to  True  Stories. 

Riverside  Edition  of  His  Works. 

Thirteen  volumes.     Twelve  etchings.     Thirteen  woodcuts  and  por 
traits. 

NOTE.  —  All  of  Hawthorne's  works,  except  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse, 
were  published  in  Boston. 


110  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Hawthorne. 

"He  was  a  beautiful,  natural,  original  genius,  and  his  life  was  sin 
gularly  exempt  from  worldly  preoccupation  and  vulgar  efforts." 
—  HENRY  JAMES. 

"The  Yankee  mind  has  for  the  most  part  budded  and  flowered  in 
pots  of  English  earth,  but  you  have  fairly  raised  yours  as  a  seed 
ling  in  the  natural  soil."  — HOLMES,  in  a  letter  to  Hawthorne. 
"  Hawthorne  uses  words  merely  as  stepping-stones,  upon  which,  with 
a  free  and  youthful  bound,  his  spirit  crosses  and  recrosses  the 
bright  and  rushing  stream  of  thought."  —  LONGFELLOW. 
"  A  frame  so  robust,  with  a  nature  so  sweet, 
So  earnest,  so  graceful,  so  solid,  so  fleet, 
Is  worth  a  descent  from  Olympus  to  meet." 

J.  R.  LOWELL. 

Poems  by  E.  C.  Stedman  and  H.  W.  Longfellow. 
Verses  in  Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 
His  Method  of  Writing. 

"  He  uses  his  characters,  like  algebraic  symbols,  to  work  out  certain 
problems  with ;  they  are  rather  more,  yet  rather  less,  than  flesh 
and  blood."  —  H.  A.  BEERS. 

"He  used  habitually  guarded  under-staternents  and  veiled  hints." 
Consult  Rose  Hawthorne  Lathrop's  article  on  the  subject,  in  The 
Ladies'  Home  Journal,  March,  1894. 

His  Own  Description  of  His  Method. 

"  The  Devil  himself  always  gets  into  my  inkstand,  and  I  can  only 
exorcise  him  by  penfuls  at  a  time." 

"  I  sternly  shut  myself  up,  and  come  to  close  grip  with  the  romance 
I  am  trying  to  tear  from  my  brain." 

"I  must  breathe  the  fogs  of  Old  England,  or  the  east  winds  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  in  order  to  put  me  in  working  trim." 

His  Aims  in  Writing. 

"The  only  sensible  ends  of  literature  are,  first,  the  pleasurable  toil 
of  writing;  second,  the  gratification  of  one's  family  and  friends; 
and,  lastly,  the  solid  cash." 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  Ill 

"  The  bubble  reputation  is  as  much  a  bubble  in  literature  as  in 
war." 

Literary  Defects. 

Occasional  mannerisms. 

Style  not  sufficiently  varied.  "His  colors  were  too  pale  and  monot 
onous,  not  the  colors  of  flesh  and  blood." 

A  Wish  of  Hawthorne's. 

"  I  wish  God  had  given  me  the  faculty  of  writing  a  sunshiny  book." 
—  Expressed  in  a  letter  to  Fields. 

His  Mental  Sight  was  both  "  panoramic  and  microscopic."     "  Every  new 
experience  was  a  fatality  to  him  for  good  or  evil." 

The  Ethics  of  His  Stories. 

"  The  morals  of  his  tales  are  never  obtrusive." 

"  Hawthorne  was  too  great  an  artist  to  confuse  for  a  moment  the 
demands  of  ethics  with  those  of  pure  art." 

Writings  that  Reflect  the  Reforms  of  His  Age. 

The  JJlithedale  Romance.  The  Hall  of  Fantasy.  Earth's  Holo 
caust.  The  New  Adam  and  Eve. 

Note  the  characterization,  in  Hawthorne  and  Lemrnon's  American 
Literature,  p.  163,  of  the  three  last  named  above. 

The  Names  of  His  Characters. 

Many  of  them  are  found  among  those  of  early  New  Englanders; 

such  as  Hooper,  Felton,  Dolliver,  Prynne,  Maule. 
Two  English  names — Chillingworth,  Coverdale. 

The  Story,  "The  Gentle  Boy." 

"  I  chanced  on  a  story  called  The  Gentle  Boy.  ...  It  is  marked  by 
so  much  grace  and  delicacy  of  feeling  that  I  am  very  desirous 
to  know  the  author,  whom  I  take  to  be  a  lady."  — MARGAKET 
FULLER,  in  1836. 

"In  this  Hawthorne  dangerously  approached  sentimentalism." 

A  Lost  Work. 

Soon  after  graduation  from  college,  Hawthorne  wrote  a  volume  of 
stories,  Seven  Tales  of  My  Native  Land.  The  publisher  engaged 
to  bring  it  out  was  so  dilatory  that  the  writer  sent  for  the  manu 
script,  and,  "  in  a  mood  half-savage  and  half-despairing,"  burned 
it.  At  that  time  he  said,  "I  pass  the  days  in  writing  stories, 
and  the  nights  in  burning  them." 


112  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

Choice  of  a  Profession. 

"  I  do  not  want  to  be  a  doctor,  and  live  by  men's  diseases;  nor  a 
minister,  to  live  by  their  sins;  nor  a  lawyer,  and  live  by  their 
quarrels.  So  I  do  not  see  that  there  is  anything  left  for  me  but 
to  become  an  author."  —  Letter  to  his  mother  in  boyhood. 

Tribute  to  His  Friend,  Horatio  Bridge. 

"If  anybody  is  responsible  for  my  being  at  this  day  an  author,  it  is 
yourself.  I  know  not  whence  your  faith  came,  .  .  .  still,  it  was 
your  prognostic  of  your  friend's  destiny  that  he  was  to  be  a 
writer  of  fiction." 

Bits  of  His  Philosophy. 

"  It  may  be  superstition,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  bitter  is  very 
apt  to  come  with  the  sweet ;  and  bright  sunshine  casts  a  dark 
shadow." 

"  If,  for  any  cause,  I  were  bent  upon  sacrificing  every  earthly  hope 
as  a  peace-offering  toward  heaven,  I  would  make  the  wide  world 
my  cell,  and  good  deeds  of  mankind  my  prayer." 

"  Let  us  hope,  therefore,  that  all  the  dreadful  consequences  of  sin 
will  not  be  incurred,  unless  the  act  have  set  its  seal  upon  the 
thought.  Yet  .  .  .  man  must  not  disclaim  his  brotherhood, 
even  with  the  guiltiest,  since,  though  his  hand  be  clean,  his 
heart  has  surely  been  polluted  by  the  flitting  phantoms  of  in 
iquity." 

"  I  assure  you  that  trouble  is  the  next  best  thing  to  enjoyment,  and 
that  there  is  no  fate  in  this  world  so  horrible  as  to  have  no  share 
in  either  its  joys  or  its  sorrows." 

"  I  want,a  little  piece  of  land  that  I  can  call  my  own,  big  enough  to 
stand  upon,  big  enough  to  be  buried  in.  I  want  to  have  some 
thing  to  do  with  this  material  world." 

"  No  sagacious  man  will  long  retain  his  sagacity  if  he  live  exclu 
sively  among  reformers  and  progressive  people,  without  periodi 
cally  returning  to  the  settled  system  of  things,  to  correct  himself 
by  a  new  observation  from  that  old  standpoint." 

"  No ;  I  desire  not  an  earthly  immortality.  Were  man  to  live  longer 
on  the  earth,  the  spiritual  would  die  out  of  him.  .  .  .  There  is 
a  celestial  something  within  us  that  requires  after  a  certain 
time  the  atmosphere  of  heaven  to  preserve  it  from  ruin." 

"  All  through  my  life  I  have  had  occasion  to  observe  that  what 
seemed  to  be  misfortunes  have  proved  in  the  end  to  be  the  best 
things  that  could  possibly  have  happened  to  me." 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  113 

"  No  one  that  needs  a  monument  ever  ought  to  have  one." 
For  an  article  011  "  Hawthorne's  Philosophy,"  consult  The  Century 
Magazine,  May,  188G. 

His  Idea  of  the  Judgment  Day. 

"  At  the  last  day,  —  when  we  see  ourselves  as  we  are,  — man's  only 
inexorable  judge  will  be  himself,  and  the  punishment  of  his 
sins  will  be  the  perception  of  them." 

Hawthorne  and  Emerson. 

"  On  a  day  in  Concord  I  saw  two  men  whom  Michael  Angelo  might 
have  chosen  as  emblems  of  Morning  and  Twilight,  to  be  carved 
over  the  gates  of  the  New  World."  —  CONWAY. 

"Emerson  feared  the  melancholy  temperament  of  his  most  distin 
guished  neighbor,  but  recognized  his  genius  and  his  almost 
magical  art.  So  long  as  Margaret  Fuller  frequented  Concord, 
she  was  an  element  that  enabled  them  to  mingle." 

See  note,  "  Emerson  and  Hawthorne,"  under  Emerson. 

Irving,  Cooper,  and  Hawthorne. 

"  Irving  feels  the  heart  of  humanity;  Cooper,  like  Scott,  magnifies 
the  chivalric  virtues,  under  new  skies;  and  Hawthorne  goes  to 
the  depth  of  the  soul  in  his  search  for  the  basal  principles  of 
human  action."  —  RICHAKDSON. 

Irving,  Poe,  and  Hawthorne  Compared. 

See  Lathrop's  Study  of  Hawthorne,  chapter  xii. 

A  Trio  of  Writers  on  the  Puritan. 

Milton,  the  poet  of  the  Puritan ;  Bunyan,  the  allegorist ;  Haw 
thorne,  the  novelist. 

Hawthorne's  Friend  and  Publisher  for  many  years.     James  T.  Fields. 
For  a  portrait  of  Fields,  see  Harper's  Magazine,  July,  1894,  p.  230. 

Hawthorne's  First  Hundred  Dollars. 

When  his  publisher,  Mr.  Fields,  brought  this  sum  to  him,  Haw 
thorne  is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  "  Take  it  back!  I  don't  know 
what  to  do  with  it !  " 

His  Humor. 

At  times  Hawthorne  showed  a  quiet,  slightly  satiric  humor.  It 
was  not  so  gentle  as  Irving's.  "  It  was  but  sunshine  breaking 
through,  or  lighting  up,  a  sombre  and  ominous  cloud." 

Anecdotes.     Consult  Fields,  Bridge,  Lathrop. 


114  NATHANIEL   HAWTHORNE. 

The  Material  for  Evangeline. 

Hawthorne  first  had  the  opportunity  to  write  a  story  on  the  Acadian 
exiles.  "He  promised  not  to  treat  the  subject  in  prose  till 
Longfellow  had  seen  what  he  could  do  with  it  in  verse."  See 
note  under  Longfellow's  Evangeline. 

Suggestive  Composition  Themes. 

Hawthorne's  "Notes  for  Stories  and  Essays."  See  Julian  Haw 
thorne's  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  and  His  Wife,  vol.  i.,  pp.  488-505. 

Relations  to  Delia  Bacon,  the  Shakespeare-Baconian  theorist. 

He  helped  her  in  the  publication  of  her  book,  The  Philosophy  of 
Shakespeare's  Plays  Unfolded,  by  writing  an  introduction  for 
it,  —  "  an  unspoiitaneous  bit  of  kindly  hackwork,"  —  and  largely 
defrayed  the  expenses. 

Despite  his  kindness,  Miss  Bacon  became  offended  because  Haw 
thorne  was  unwilling  to  accept  her  theory. 

He  wrote  "Recollections  of  a  Gifted  Woman,"  an  interesting  sketch 
of  Miss  Bacon,  in  Our  Old  Home.  The  manuscript  of  this  may 
be  seen  in  Harvard's  library. 

Theodore  Bacon's  Life  of  Delia  Bacon  contains  twenty  letters  writ 
ten  to  her  by  Hawthorne. 

Salem    Associations  with   Hawthorne.      (He  lived  thirty-five  years  in 

Salem.) 

House  of  birth,  27  Union  Street. 

Other  homes.     On  Herbert,  Mall,  Chestnut,  and  Dearborn  Streets. 
"  The  Griinshawe  House."    63  Charter  Street. 
The  cemetery  in  which  Judge  Hathorue  lies. 
"  The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables." 

The  Ingersoll  House?  Foot  of  Turner  Street.  (See  Harper's 
Magazine,  June,  1S$4,  p.  41.) 

The  Curwin  House?  Corner  Essex  and  North  Streets.  "The 
"Witch  House."  Mrs.  Hathorne  Curwin,  builder,  was  an 
ancestor  of  Henry  W.  Longfellow. 

The  writer  himself  said  he  had  no  particular  house  in  mind. 
The  Custom-House,  and  Hawthorne's  room  in  it. 
Hawthorne's  desk,  in  the  historic  old  meeting-house  (the  oldest  in 

New  England),  on  Essex  Street. 
See  booklet,  Picturesque   Salem,  published  by  Win.  H.  Wiggin, 

Cambridge. 

Houghton  &  Minim  publish  a  "  Salem  Edition,"  pleasing  and  inex 
pensive,  of  Hawthorne's  works. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES.  115 

Read  Julian  Hawthorne's  article,  "The  Salem  of  Hawthorne,"  in 
The  Century  Magazine,  May,  1884. 

His  Concord  Homes. 
The  Old  Manse. 

"  A  little  island  of  the  past,  standing  intact  above  the  flood  of 

events." 

The  Ripley  House  and  Emerson's  ancestral  home. 
See  note  under  Emerson's  homes. 
The  Wayside. 

On  the  highway  to  Boston,  the  road  down  which  the  British 

marched  in  April,  1775. 
Bought  of  his  friend,  A.  Bronson  Alcott,  father  of  Louisa  Alcott. 

(Here  Louisa  Alcott  had  done  her  first  writing.) 
The  Alcotts  lived  in  the  adjoining  house,  and  on  the  other  side 

of  Hawthorne  dwelt  Ephraim  Bull,  the  originator  of  the 

Concord  grape. 
Figures  in  Septimius  Fclton. 
Hawthorne  added  a  tower,  for  a  retreat,  like  Alexander  Dumas 

and  T.  B.  Aldrich.      In  the  study  of  the  tower  hangs  the 

motto  from  Tennyson,  "  There  is  no  joy  hut  calm." 
Now  owned  by  "  Margaret  Sidney,"  Mrs.  Lothrop,  widow  of 

Daniel  Lothrop,  the  late  Boston  publisher,  and  a  charming 

writer  of  children's  books. 
On  the  crest  of  the  ridge  back  of  the  house,  the  path  worn  by 

Hawthorne  in  his  meditations  is  still  visible. 
NOTE. — For  Hawthorne's  several  homes  and  views  of  them, 

consult  The  New  England  Magazine  for  November,  1893; 

G.   W.    Curtis's   Homes   of  American  Authors;    Harper's 

Magazine,  August,   1894,   pp.  444,  445;    Theodore  "Wolfe's 

Literary  Shrines ;   The  Century  Magazine,  August,  1895. 


Like  Cooper,  Hawthorne  did  not  wish  his  family  to  give  the  world  bio 
graphical  material  relating  to  himself. 

Hawthorne  could  not  distinguish  one  melody  from  another,  although 
he  had  a  nice  perception  of  rhythm,  and  was  sensitive  to  the  quality 
of  the  human  voice. 

Edgar  Allan  Poe  considered  Howe's  Masquerade  plagiarized  from  his 
own  story,  William  Wilson. 

"He  waited  twenty-five  years  to  be  appreciated." 

Twice  in  his  journal  he  speaks  of  wishing  to  write  a  novel  upon  the 
probable  subsequent  career  of  the  rich  young  man  in  the  Scriptures 
whom  Jesus  loved. 


116  NATHANIEL    HAWTHORNE. 

"  Hawthorne  had. the  art  of  not  being  '  embarrassed  by  his  own  ideas.'  " 
A  copy  of  his  first  novel,  Fanshawe,  was  found  in  Lewiston,  Me.,  in 

1893,  in  an  old  beanpot,  and  sold  to  a  Bostonian  for  a  hundred  dollars. 
Hawthorne  believed  that  he  could  not  have  read  through  his  own  books 

had  they  been  written  by  another. 
"  He  had  a  spiritual  insight,  but  it  did  not  penetrate  to  the  source  of 

spiritual  joy."  — E.  P.  WHIPPLE. 
Emerson  believed  that  the  world  would  sooner  see  another  Shakespeare 

than  another  Hawthorne. 
QUERY.  —  To  what  extent  did  environment  mould  Hawthorne's  literary 

productions  ? 


RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON. 


RALPH  WALDO   EMERSON. 

LECTUKER,  ESSAYIST,  POET,  PHILOSOPHER,  REFORMER. 


EXTRACTS. 

NOR  knowest  thou  what  argument 

Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor's  creed  hath  lent. 

All  are  needed  by  each  one  — 

Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone. 

EACH  AND  ALL. 

BEAUTY  through  my  senses  stole  — 
I  yielded  myself  to  the  perfect  whole. 

IBID. 

IF  eyes  were  made  for  seeing, 
Then  beauty  is  its  own  excuse  for  being. 

THE  RHODORA. 

NOT  from  a  vain  or  shallow  thought 
His  awful  Jove  young  Phidias  brought. 

THE  PROBLEM. 

THE  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  dome, 
And  groined  the  aisles  of  Christian  Rome, 
Wrought  in  a  sad  sincerity ; 
Himself  from  God  he  could  not  free  ; 
He  builded  better  than  he  knew ;  — 
The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew. 

IBID. 
119 


120         RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

THE  word  by  seers  or  sibyls  told, 
In  groves  of  oak,  or  fanes  of  gold, 
Still  floats  upon  the  morning  wind, 
Still  whispers  to  the  willing  mind. 
One  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
The  heedless  world  hath  never  lost. 

THE  PROBLEM. 

So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 

When  duty  whispers  low,  "  Thou  must," 

The  youth  replies,  "  I  can." 

VOLUNTARIES. 

WHAT  are  they  all  in  their  high  conceit 
When  man  in  the  bush  with  God  may  meet  ? 

GOOD-BYE. 

BY  the  rude  bridge  that  arched  the  flood, 
Their  flag  to  April's  breeze  unfurled, 
Here  once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world. 

CONCORD  HYMN. 

WHAT  care  though  rival  cities  soar 

Along  the  stormy  coast, 

Penn's  town,  New  York,  and  Baltimore, 

If  Boston  knew  the  most  ? 

BOSTON. 

UNLESS  to  Thought  is  added  Will, 
Apollo  is  an  imbecile. 


IF  Thought  unlock  her  mysteries, 
If  Friend's  lip  on  me  smile, 


EXTRACTS.  121 

I  walk  in  marble  galleries, 
I  talk  with  kings  the  while. 

WAI-DUN. 

THE  silent  organ  loudest  chants 
The  master's  requiem. 

DIKGE. 

APOTHEGMS  FROM  HIS  ESSAYS. 

HE  serves  all  who  dares  be  true. 

The  gentleman  is  quiet ;  the  lady  is  serene. 

There  is  always  the  best  way  of  doing  things,  if  it  be 
but  to  boil  an  egg. 

Insist  on  yourself  ;  never  imitate. 

Proverbs  are  the  sanctuary  of  the  intuitions. 

Language  is  fossil  poetry. 

If  you  put  a  chain  around  the  neck  of  a  slave,  the  other 
end  fastens  itself  around  your  own. 

No  man  ever  prayed   heartily  without   learning    some 
thing. 

All  mankind  love  a  lover. 

America  means  opportunity. 

Every  opinion  reacts  on  him  who  utters  it. 

Manners  are  the  happy  way  of  doing  things. 

A  great  man  is  always  willing  to  be  little. 

The    moment  we    indulge    our    affections    the   world    is 
metamorphosed. 

Every   man   alone    is    sincere.      At   the    entrance    of   a 
second  person  hypocrisy  begins. 


122          RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

Nothing  great  was  ever  achieved  without  enthusiasm. 

A  friend  is  a  person  with  whom  I  may  be  sincere. 
Before  him  I  may  think  aloud. 

The  world  exists  for  the  education  of  each  man. 
,Hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star. 

A  scholar  is  the  favorite  of  heaven  and  earth  —  the 
happiest  of  men. 

Faces  are  a  record  in  sculpture  of  a  thousand  anecdotes 
of  whim  and  folly. 

I  look  upon  the  simple  and  childish  virtues  of  veracity 
and  honesty  as  the  root  of  all  that  is  sublime  in  character. 
Speak  as  you  think,  be  what  you  are,  pay  your  debts  of 
all  kinds. 

We  love  any  forms,  however  ugly,  from  which  great 
qualities  shine. 

A    VISIT  TO  STONEHENGE. 

WE  left  the  train  at  Salisbury  and  took  a  carriage  to 
Amesbury,  passing  by  Old  Sarum,  a  bare,  treeless  hill, 
once  containing  the  town  which  sent  two  members  to 
Parliament  —  now,  not  a  hut;  and,  arriving  at  Amesbury, 
stopped  at  the  George  Inn.  After  dinner  we  walked  to 
Salisbury  Plain.  On  the  broad  downs,  under  the  gray 
sky,  not  a  house  was  visible,  nothing  but  Stonehenge, 
which  looked  like  a  group  of  brown  dwarfs  in  the  wide 
expanse,  —  Stonehenge  and  the  barrows,  which  rose  like 
green  bosses  about  the  plain,  and  a  few  hayricks.  On 
the  top  of  a  mountain  the  old  temple  would  not  be  more 
impressive.  Far  and  wide  a  few  shepherds  with  their 
flocks  sprinkled  the  plain,  and  a  bagman  drove  along  the 


EXTRACTS.  123 

road.  It  looked  as  if  the  wide  margin  given  in  this 
crowded  isle  to  this  primeval  temple  were  accorded  by 
the  veneration  of  the  British  race  to  the  old  egg  out  of 
which  all  their  ecclesiastical  structures  and  history  had 
proceeded.  Stonehenge  is  a  circular  colonnade  with  a 
diameter  of  a  hundred  feet,  and  enclosing  a  second  and 
third  colonnade  within.  We  walked  around  the  stones 
and  clambered  over  them,  to  wont  ourselves  with  their 
strange  aspect  and  groupings,  and  found  a  nook  sheltered 
from  the  wind  among  them,  where  Carlyle  lighted  his 
cigar.  It  was  pleasant  to  see  that  just  this  simplest  of 
all  simple  structures  —  two  upright  stones  and  a  lintel 
laid  across  —  had  long  outstood  all  later  churches  and 
all  history,  and  were  like  what  is  most  permanent  on 
the  face  of  the  planet ;  these,  and  the  barrows  —  mere 
mounds  (of  which  there  are  a  hundred  and  sixty  within 
a  circle  of  three  miles  about  Stonehenge),  like  the  same 
mound  on  the  plain  of  Troy,  which  still  makes  good  to 
the  passing  mariner  011  Hellespont  the  vaunt  of  Homer 
and  the  fame  of  Achilles.  Within  the  enclosure  grow 
buttercups,  nettles  ;  and  all  around,  wild  thyme,  daisy, 
meadowsweet,  goldenrod,  thistle,  and  the  carpeting  grass. 
Over  us,  larks  were  soaring  and  singing,  —  as  my  friend 
said^  "the  larks  which  were  hatched  last  year,  and  the 
wind  which  was  hatched  many  thousand  years  ago."  We 
counted  and  measured  by  paces  the  biggest  stones,  and 
soon  knew  as  much  as  any  man  can  suddenly  know  of 
the  inscrutable  temple.  There  are  ninety-Sour  stones,  and 
there  were  once  probably  one  hundred  and  sixty.  The 
temple  is  circular  and  uncovered,  and  the  situation  fixed 
astronomically,  —  the  grand  entrances,  here  and  at  Abury, 
being  placed  exactly  north-east,  "  as  all  the  gates  of  the 


124  RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON. 

old  cavern  temples  are."  How  came  the  stones  here  ? 
for  these  sarsens,  or  Druidical  sandstones,  are  not  found 
in  this  neighborhood.  The  sacrificial  stone,  as  it  is  called, 
is  the  only  one  in  all  these  blocks  that  can  resist  the 
action  of  fire,  and,  as  I  read  in  the  books,  must  have 
been  brought  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

ENGLISH  TRAITS. 

The  scholar,  then,  is  unfurnished  who  has  only  literary 
weapons.  He  ought  to  have  as  many  talents  as  he  can : 
memory,  arithmetic,  practical  power,  manners,  temper, 
lion-heart,  are  all  good  things,  and  if  he  has  none  of  them 
he  can  still  manage,  if  he  have  the  mainmast  —  if  he  is 
anything.  But  he  must  have  the  resource  of  resources, 
and  be  planted  on  necessity.  For  the  sure  months  are 
bringing  him  to  an  examination-day  in  which  nothing  is 
remitted  or  excused,  and  for  which  no  tutor,  no  book,  no 
lectures,  and  almost  no  preparation,  can  be  of  the  least 
avail.  He  will  have  to  answer  certain  questions,  which, 
I  must  plainly  tell  you,  cannot  be  staved  off.  For  all 
men,  all  women,  Time,  your  country,  your  condition,  the 
invisible  world,  are  the  interrogators :  Who  are  you  ? 
What  do  you  ?  Can  you  obtain  what  you  wish  ?  Is 
there  method  in  your  consciousness  ?  Can  you  see  ten 
dency  in  your  life  ?  Can  you  help  any  soul  ? 

THE  SCHOLAB. 


REFERENCES.  125 


REFERENCES. 

Biographies  by  James  E.  Cabot,   George  "W.  Cooke,   O.  W.  Holmes, 

Richard  Garnett,  and  Alexander  Ireland. 
Stedmaii's  Poets  of  America. 
M.  D.  Conway's  Emerson  at  Home  and  Abroad. 
E.  \V.  Emerson's  Emerson  in  Concord. 
A.  B-.  Alcott's  Genius  and  Character  of  Emerson  and  Concord  Days. 

D.  G.  Haskins's  Emerson's  Maternal  Ancestors. 
Correspondence  of  Thomas  Carlyle  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

C.  F.  Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  I.,  chap,  ix.,  arid  vol.  II., 

chap.  v. 

Stedman-Hutchinsoii's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  VI. 
Welsh's  Development  of  English  Literature  and  Language.     Vol.  II. 
Gihnan's  Poets'  Homes. 

II.  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 
Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 
Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics  and  My  Study  Windows.     (Chapter  in  the 

latter  on  Emerson  as  Lecturer.) 

Margaret  Sidney's  Old  Concord:  Her  Highways  and  Byways. 
G.  B.  Bartlett's  Concord  Guide  Book. 
Theodore  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 
Hawthorne's  "The Groat  Stone  Face"  in  Twice-told  Talcs.    ("Ernest," 

the  hero  of  this  story,  is  said  to  be  Emerson.) 
George  William  Curtis's  Literary  and  Social  Essays. 

E.  P.  Whipple's  Recollections  of  Eminent  Men. 
Hermann  Grimm's  Essay  on  Emerson. 

Griswold's  Poets  of  America  and  Prose  Writers  of  America. 

Ilolmes's  Address  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Socioty,  1882. 

E.  E.  Hale's  Lights  of  Two  Centuries. 

Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American,  Biography. 

Text-books  and  Cyclopaedias  of  American  Literature. 

Harpers'  Magazine.     September,  1882;    February,  1884;    August,  1894. 

(Howells's  "  My  First  Visit  to  New  England.") 
The  Century  Magazine.    April,  1883. 
The  New  England  Magazine.    December,  1890.    (Article  by  Saiiborn. 

Illustrated.)     July,  1891. 


126  RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON. 

Scribner's  Monthly.  February,  1879.  ("  Homes  and  Haunts  of  Emer 
son.") 

The  Literary  World.    Emerson  Number,  May  22,  1880. 

NOTE.  —  For  additional  references  on  Emerson's  Philosophy,  Optimism, 
Influence,  Theism,  and  Writings,  and  for  an  indicated  selection  of 
his  works,  poetical  and  prose,  see  Miss  Hodgkins's  Guide  to  the  Study 
of  Nineteenth  Century  Authors. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  127 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

May  25, 1803. 
April  24,  1882. 

"  Great  geniuses  have  the  shortest  biographies."  —  EMERSON. 

Born  in  Boston,  corner  of  Summer  and  Chauncey  Streets,  near  the 

site  of  Franklin's  birthplace. 
His  birthday  was  the  same  as  that  of  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton. 

Ancestors. 

He  was  descended  from  eight  generations  of  ministers,  —  "  the 
concentration  of  their  spiritual  and  intellectual  tendencies." 
"  An  Academic  race."  —  HOLMES. 
Notable  Ancestors. 

Peter  Bulkley,  minister  of  the  first  church  in  Concord. 
Rev.   John   Emerson,   pastor  of   the   First   Parish   Church, 

Gloucester,  Mass.,  in  the  time  of  Cotton  Mather. 
Grandfather,  William  Emerson. 

Minister  at  Concord  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 
The  first  battle  was  fought  close  to  the  pastor's  manse. 
("  Let  us  stand  our  ground,"  William  Emerson  said  ; 

"if  we  die,  let  us  die  here.") 
Father. 

Minister  of  the  First  Church,  Boston. 

An  Overseer  of  Harvard  College. 

Editor  of  The  Monthly  Anthology,  a  precursor  of  The  North 
American  Review,  and  a  factor  in  forming  the  literary  taste 
of  New  England. 

Died  when  Ralph  Waldo  was  but  seven  years  old. 
Mother. 

"  A  woman  of  great  patience  and  fortitude,  of  the  serenest  trust 
in  God,  of  a  discerning  spirit  and  the  most  courteous  bear 
ing." 

Struggled  victoriously  with  poverty. 


128          RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

Second  of  Five  Sons. 

The  youngest,  Charles  Chauncy,  who  died  in  early  life,  had 
shown  literary  talent  not  unlike  Kalph  Waldo's.     Called  by 
Holmes,  "the  calm,  chaste  scholar." 
In  his  boyhood,  Kalph  Waldo  used  to  drive  his  mother's  cow 

daily  to  the  Common  for  pasture. 
Education. 

Deeply  impressed  during  his  youth  by  the  remarkable  character 

of  his  aunt,  Mary  Moody  Emerson. 

Boston  Latin  School.     At  the  age  of  eleven,  Emerson  was  put 
ting  Yergil  into  English. 

Harvard  College,  when  Edward  Everett  was  professor  of  Greek 
Literature  there. 

"  President's  freshman,"  messenger  boy,  and  waiter  at  Com 
mons.  • 
Visited  the  library  frequently. 

Showed  no  unusual  ability,  but  gained  two  Bowdoin  prizes 

for  dissertations,  and  the  Boylston  prize  for  declamation. 

(The   thirty  dollars  received   for  the   latter  he   carried 

home  to  his  mother  for  the  purchase  of  a  shawl.) 

Great  enthusiasm  for  Montaigne.     He  felt  that  "  he  himself 

had  written  the  essays  in  a  former  life." 
Ambitious,  on  graduating,  to  be  a  professor  of  rhetoric  and 

elocution. 

Poet  of  his  class.     1821. 

Eoomed  three  years  in  Hollis  Hall.     Nos.  5,  15,  9. 
Classmates,  Samuel  J.  Tilden  and  Dr.  Wm.  II.  Furness. 
Teaches  five  years  in  Boston  and  Chelmsford  (Lowell). 
Studies  Theology,  with  Dr.  W.  E.  Channing,  founder  of  Unitarian- 
ism,  at  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School. 
Travels  in  the  South  for  his  Health. 

Colleague,  then  Pastor,  over  the  Second  Church  (Unitarian),  Bos 
ton.    '1829. 

His  preaching  was  "  simple,  eloquent,  effective." 
Resigned,  in    1832,  because   he   thought  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  should  be  observed  without  symbols. 
(See  his  sermon  on  its  interpretation.) 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS   LIFE.  129 

Marriage  to  Ellen  Tucker,  "  a  bright  revelation  to  me  of  the  best 

nature  of  woman."     1829. 
His  wife  died  within  three  years,  a  victim  to  consumption. 

Trip  to  Europe,  in  1833,  for  health. 

Meets  Carlyle,  Wordsworth,  De  Quincey,  and  Coleridge. 

Friendship  with  Carlyle. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  in  literary  annals. 

Emerson  visits  Carlyle  twice,  and  the  latter  likens  these  visits 
in  his  home  to  those  of  an  angel. 

Invites  Carlyle  to  spend  a  year  with  him  in  Concord. 

Corresponds  with  him  thirty-six  years,  calling  out  the  best  of 
Carlyle's  nature. 

Edits  Carlyle's  works  in  America. 

Introduces  Charles  Sumner  and  Longfellow  to  the  philosopher. 

Carlyle  outlives  Emerson  but  a  year. 

"  The  hatred  of  unreality  was  uppermost  in  Carlyle;  the  love  of 
what  is  real  and  genuine,  with  Emerson."  — O.  W.  HOLMES. 

NOTE.  — See  the  Emerson-Carlyle  Correspondence,  Lowell's  com 
parison  of  the  two  men  in  The  Fable  'for  Critics,  Haweis's  in 
American  Humorists,  p.  87,  and  Welsh's  in  The  Development 
of  English  Literature. 

(Compare  Emerson's  Representative  Men  and  Carlyle's  Heroes 
and  Hero-Worship.) 

Life  in  Concord  until  his  death. 

Emerson  makes  Concord  now  the  "  Delphi  of  New  England," 

"  America's  Literary  Mecca." 
"  The  fame  of  the  philosopher  attracts   admiring  friends  and 

enthusiasts  from  every  quarter,  and  the  scholarly  grace  and 

urbane   hospitality  of   the   gentleman   send    them  charmed 

away."  —  GEOKGE  W.  CURTIS. 

Second  Marriage,  1835,  to  Lidian  Jackson,  of  Plymouth,  Mass.,  and 
purchase  of  a  house,  the  "  Emerson  home,"  on  the  Lexing 
ton  Road. 

Their  domestic  life  was  simple,  frugal,  hospitable,  genuine. 

Mrs.  Emerson  survived  her  husband  ten  years. 


130          RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

Publishes,  anonymously,  Nature,  an  essay  expressing  his  philoso 
phy.     1836. 

Its  sale  for  twelve  years  was  an  average  of  a  copy  once  in  ten 
days. 

Delivers  an  Oration,  "The  American  Scholar,"  before  the  Phi  Beta 

Kappa  Society  at  Harvard,  1837. 

"Our  Yankee  version  of  a  lecture  by  Abelard."  — LOWELL. 
"  Our  intellectual  Declaration  of  Independence."  —  HOLMES. 

Address  before  Divinity  School,  Cambridge. 
Creates  a  sensation  in  religious  circles. 

Lyceum  Lecturer  for  Forty  Years. 

"  My  pulpit  is  the  lyceum  platform." 

Emerson  was  the  founder  of  this  system  of  lecturing,  popular  in 
New  England  for  many  years  because  it  furnished  a  supple 
mentary  education  to  that  of  the  public  schools.  (Note  the 
derivation  and  definition  of  "  Lyceum,"  and  read  article, 
"The  Rise  and  Decline  of  the  New  England  Lyceum,"  in 
The  New  England  Magazine,  February,  1895.) 

Emerson  gave  courses  of  lectures  in  America,  England,  and 
Scotland. 

Subjects.  —  Biography,  English  Literature,  Philosophy  of  His 
tory,  Human  Life,  and  Human  Culture. 

Upon  his  hundredth  lecture  in  Concord,  the  audience  rose  spon 
taneously  when  he  appeared. 

Read  Lowell's  chapter  on  Emerson  in  My  Study  Windows. 

Death  of  Waldo,  his  eldest  son,  at  five  years  of  age. 
See  poem,  "  Threnody." 

Publishes  the  first  series  of  his  essays,   1841;  second  series,  1844; 
poems,  1846. 

Contributes  to    The  Atlantic  Monthly  and    The  North  American 
Review. 

Edits  The  Dial  from  1842  to  1844,  succeeding  Margaret  Fuller,  the 

"  priestess  and  queen  of  transcendentalism." 
See  notes  on  Transcendentalism  and  Brook  Farm. 

Supports,  in  Theory,  the  Brook  Farm  Experiment. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  131 

Advocates  Anti-Slavery. 

Opens  his  Boston  church  to  Abolition  speakers. 

Addresses  Anti-Slavery  societies. 

Makes  a  speech  on  Brooks' s  assault  of  Sumner. 

His  Proposal.     To  buy  the  slaves  for  two  billions  of  dollars,  and 

educate  them  morally. 
Read  his  poem,  "  Freedom." 

Visits  England. 

Meets  Arthur  Hugh  Clough  on  the  steamer  coming  home. 

Makes  a  Trip  to  California.     1871. 

"  There  was  never  a  more  agreeable  travelling  companion." 
Meets  Brigham  Young  at  Salt  Lake  City. 

Home  Burned  in  1872. 

Goes  to  England  and  the  Nile. 

"An  American  Myth.     When  Emerson  gazed  at  the  Sphinx,  she 

said  to  him,  '  You're  another.'  " 

See  poem,  "  The  Sphinx,"  and  his  book,  English  Traits. 
Returns,  to  find  the  home  rebuilt  by  his  friends. 

Nominated,  with  Disraeli,  for  the  office  of  Lord  Rector  of  Glasgow 
University. 

Outlives  His  Mental  Power,  but  lingers,  honored  by  all. 

Funeral  Services. 

Conducted  by  Dr.  Furness,  his  classmate  and  friend. 

Judge  Hoar  and  James  Freeman  Clarke  gave  the  addresses,  and 

the  flowers  were  arranged  by  Louisa  Alcott. 
Rhodoras  were  among  the  floral  offerings. 

Burial  Place. 

Near  Hawthorne  and  Thoreau,  in  ground  on  which  he  had  often 
walked  and  talked  with  them. 

His  grave  was  disturbed  in  the  winter  of  1889-1890.  Site  marked 
by  a  boulder  of  rose  quartz.  Tablet  inserted,  in  1894,  bear 
ing  this  couplet  (from  Emerson),  — 

"  The  passive  master  lent  his  hand 
To  the  vast  soul  that  o'er  him  planned." 

View.     See  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines,  p.  78. 


132  RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON. 

Character. 

Retiring,  simple,  serene,  hospitable,  philanthropic  ;  a  ready  lis 
tener  ;  "intuitive  rather  than  logical;"  "in  his  nature, 
emotion  seems  to  be  less  the  product  of  the  heart  than  of 
the  brain."  He  had  a  "genius  for  friendship."  A  good 
citizen.  "  Goodness  and  truth  were  spontaneous  to  him." 

"  Beauty  is  at  the  heart  of  his  nature  ;  he  avoided  instinctively 
the  ugly  and  the  base." 

"  His  personal  humility  was  as  great  as  his  personal  dignity." 

Appearance. 

"I  have  seen  Emerson,  the  first  man  I  have  seen.  —  GEORGE 

ELIOT'S  Diary. 
"  Tall,  slender,  not  robust.     Sallow,  aquiline  nose,  and  eyes  of 

the  strongest  and  brightest  blue." 

Majestic,  calm,  kindly.    He  frequently  smiled,  but  rever  laughed. 
"  The  most  gracious  of  mortals." 

Manners. 
Dignified  and  simple. 

Voice. 

"  The  perfect  music  of  spiritual  utterance." 

"  The  choir  was  coarse  and  discordant  after  his  voice." 

Family.     Four  children. 
Waldo.     Died  young. 

Edith,  Mrs.  J.  M.  Forbes,  Brookline,  Mass. 
Edward.     A  Concord  physician,  art  student,  and  lecturer. 
Ellen  Emerson,  who  occupies  the  Concord  house.     (1896.) 
Poem,  "  To  Ellen." 


APPELLATIONS.  133 


APPELLATIONS. 

THE  BUDDHA.  OF  THE  WEST. 

THE  POET  PHILOSOPHER. 

THE  WORSHIPPER  OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL. 

THE  PRACTICAL  IDEALIST. 

A  JOHN  CRYING  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 

A  BORN  POET,  BUT  NOT  A  BOKN  SINGER. 

AN  INTELLECTUAL  MYSTIC. 

AMERICA'S  MOST  ORIGINAL  WRITER. 

THE  APOSTLE  OF  SINCERITY. 

THE  GLORIFIED  FARMER. 

THE  POETIC  SEER. 

A  HINDOO  YANKEE. 

THE  CONCORD  SAGE. 

THE  LANDLORD  AND  WATERLORD  OF  WALDEN. 

AN  INCORRIGIBLE  SPOUTING  YANKEE.     (SELF-GIVEN.) 

THE  PARAGON  OF  A  GENTLEMAN. 

THE  NEW  WORLD  TRANSCENDENTALISM 

A  PHILOSOPHER  WITHOUT  A  SYSTEM. 

OUR  MOST  TYPICAL  AND  INSPIRING  POET. 

A  PURE  TYPE  OF  HUMAN  INNOCENCE. 

THE  PRINCE  OF  IDEALISTS. 

THE  INTELLECTUAL  EMANCIPATOR  OF  AMERICA. 

THE  CONCORD  SPHINX. 

NEW  ENGLAND'S  GENTLE  ICONOCLAST. 

A  WINGED  FRANKLIN. 

THE  YANKEE  PLATO. 


134         RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WBITINGS. 

General  Comments. 

"  He  lived  and  wrote  by  a  sort  of  divine  instinct." 

"His  poetry  is  filled  with  celestial  imagery."  (Expressive  of  its 
writer's  lofty  nature.) 

Emerson  said  of  himself,  "  I  am  not  a  great  poet." 

"His  poetry  is  his  serenest  heaven,  and  his  most  convenient  rub 
bish-heap." 

"  Emerson  is  distinguished  as  a  writer  for  a  singular  union  of 
poetic  imagination  with  practical  acuteness.  .  .  .  He  seldom 
indulges  in  the  expression  of  sentiment,  and  in  his  nature  emo 
tion  seems  to  be  less  the  product  of  the  heart  than  of  the  brain. 
.  .  .  His  style  is  in  the  nicest  harmony  with  the  character  of 
his  thought.  It  is  condensed  almost  to  abruptness.  .  .  .  His 
merits  as  a  writer  consist  rather  in  the  choice  of  words  than  in 
the  connection  of  sentences,  though  his  diction  is  vitalized  by 
the  presence  of  a  powerful  creative  element."  —  The  American 
Encyclopedia. 

Profuseness  of  Quotation.  Although  one  of  the  most  original  of 
writers,  Emerson  quoted  freely,  and  from  many  writers,  —  nearly 
nine  hundred. 

His  Philosophy. 

Obscure,  mystical.     "  Home-bred." 

It  exalted  the  spiritual  side  of  life  and  the  principle  of  individuality. 

The  universe  was  to  him  "  but  one  vast  symbol  of  God." 

"  I  am  part  and  particle  of  God." 

Works  that  reveal  it  best. 

Nature.     The  Over-Soul.     Circles.     The  Conduct  of  Life. 
His  favorite  philosopher.     Plato.  » 

NOTE.  — For  an  explanation  of  his  philosophy,  and  for  a  brief  char- 
acterization  of  his  representative  poems,  consult  Hawthorne  and 
Lemmon's  American  Literature,  pp.  12G-130. 

His  only  Autobiographical  Writing.    English  Traits. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  135 

Parnassus. 

A  collection  of  poems  edited  by  Emerson,  consisting  of  verses  he 
personally  liked.  The  result  of  copying,  from  time  to  time,  such 
poems  into  a  "  commonplace  book." 

Memoirs  of  Thoreau  and  Margaret  Fuller  are  among  Emerson's  writings- 

The  Mountain  and  the  Squirrel.     (Fable.) 

A  poem  that  shows  the  possession  of  keen  wit  on  the  part  of  Emer 
son. 

Boston  Hymn. 

Read  by  the  author  at  an  abolition  jubilee  held  in  Boston  in  cele 
bration  of  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

A  Posthumous  Publication.     (1893.) 

The  Natural  History  of  Intellect  and  Other  Essays. 

Sale  of  Works. 

The  first  edition  of  The  Conduct  of  Life,  twenty-five  hundred  copies, 
sold  in  two  days.  Contrast  this  with  the  very  slight  demand  for 
Nature,  published  twenty-seven  years  earlier. 

Suggested  Readings  from  Emerson. 

Poetry.  The  Rhodora.  (A  woodcut  of  the  flower  may  be  seen  in 
Appletons'  American  Encyclopaedia.)  The  Snow  Storm.  Friend 
ship.  The  Humble  Bee.  Each  and  All.  The  Concord  Hymn. 
(Memorize  the  last-named.) 

Prose.  Essays  on  Friendship,  Self-reliance,  Compensation,  and 
Manners.  A  chapter  each  from  English  Trails,  Representative 
Men,  and  The  Conduct  of  Life. 


136          RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes. 

"  If  any  one  can  be  said  to  have  given  the  impulse  to  my  mind,  it  is 
Emerson.  Whatever  I  have  done  the  world  owes  to  him."  — 
PROFESSOR  TYNDALL. 

"  Whenever  I  take  up  a  volume  [of  Emerson]  anew,  it  seems  to  me 
as  if  I  were  reading  it  for  the  first  time."  — HERMANN  GRIMM. 

"  Emerson  could  no  more  help  taking  the  hopeful  view  of  the  uni 
verse  and  its  future  than  Claude  could  help  flooding  his  land 
scapes  with  sunshine."  —  O.  W.  HOLMES. 

"Emerson  was  a  great  man  who  wroto  posms  rather  than  a  great 
poet."  —  C.  F.  RICHARDSON. 

"Theodore  Parker  was  wont  to  thank  GoJ  for  the  moon,  the  stars, 
and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson." 

Emerson  was  elected  a  memher  of  the  Moral  Science  section  of  the 
French  Academy. 

Hawthorne's  The  Great  Stone  Face. 

Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics.  (Emerson  is  the  first  writer  character 
ized  by  Lowell  in  this  poem.) 

Poems  by  F.  B.  Sanborn,  Emma  Lazarus,  J.  R.  Lowell;  A.  Bronson 
Alcott's  monody,  Ion. 

Emerson's  Disciples. 

In  the  pulpit,  Theodore  Parker. 

In  literature,  Walt  Whitman  and  John  Burroughs. 

In  theory  of  living,  Henry  Thoreau  and  W.  E.  Channing,  Jr. 

Views  on  Woman's   Suffrage. 

(Uttered  in  1856  at  a  Woman's  Rights  Convention.) 
"  It  is  for  women,  not  men,  to  determine  if  women  wish  an  equal 
share  in  affairs.  If  we  refuse  them  a  vote,  we  should  refuse  to 
tax  them.  ...  If  the  wants,  the  passions,  the  vices,  are  allowed 
a  full  vote,  through  the  hands^of  a  half-brutal,  intemperate 
population,  I  think  it  but  fair  that  the  virtues,  the  aspirations, 
should  be  allowed  a  full  voice  as  an  offset,  through  the  purest  of 
the  people." 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  137 

Emerson  and  Hawthorne. 

Good  neighbors,  but  not  intimate  or  sympathetic  frie/ids. 

Emerson  used  to  say  that  he  always  talked  better  when  Hawthorne's 

eyes  were  fixed  upon  him. 

Hawthorne  says  of  the  philosopher,  "It  was  impossible  to  dwell 
in  his  vicinity  without  inhaling  more  or  less  of  the  mountain 
atmosphere  of  his  lofty  thought." 

See  note  on  the  two  men  among  the  Hawthorne  Notes. 
Emerson  and  Longfellow  Contrasted. 

"In  Longfellow,  true  poet  though  he  was,  art  sometimes  usurped 
the  place  of  genius;  in  Emerson,  genius  too  often  refused  the 
needed  aid  of  art."  —  RICHARDSON. 
Emerson's  Rules  for  Reading. 

Never  read  any  book  that  is  not  a  year  old. 
Never  read  any  but  famed  books. 
Never  read  any  but  what  you  like.  , 

His  Homes. 

The  Manse.    Emerson's  ancestral  home,  at  Concord,  Mass. 
Occupied  by  Emerson  at  several  different  times. 
Built  in  17G5  for  Rev.  \Vm.  Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo's  grand 
father.     (His  widow  married  the  succeeding  minister,  Ezra 
Ripley.    It  was  with  the  Ripleys  that  James  Russell  Lowell 
spent  his  period  of  college  rustication.) 
Scores  of  New  England  ministers  have  been  entertained  here, 

and  thousands  of  sermons  have  been  written  in  it. 
The  Study.    A  small  square  room  over  the  dining-room. 

Here  Hawthorne  wrote  Mosses  from  an   Old  Manse,  and 

Emerson  wrote  Nature. 
From  its  north  window  Emerson's  grandmother  watched 

the  Concord  fight. 
Read  the  Introduction  to  Hawthorne's  Mosses  From  an  Old 

Manse. 
Views.     See  Scribner's  Magazine,   February,  1879;    The   New 

England  Magazine,  November,  1893. 
The  Emerson  Home.    On  the  Lexington  road. 

In  a  grove  of  pines ;  a  garden  of  roses  and  hollyhocks  in  the  rear. 

Visited  often  by  Thoreau,  Theodore  Parker,  Margaret  Fuller, 

the  Alcott   family,  Elizabeth  Peabody;   entertained   Fred- 

erika  Bremer,  Harriet  Martineau,  and  Arthur  Hugh  Clough. 

Views.     Scribner's  Magazine,  February,  1879;    Concord  Guide 

Books;  Harper's  Magazine,  August,  1894. 


138          RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

His  Personality. 

"  In  everything  he  thought,  wrote,  and  did,  we  feel  the  presence  of 
a  personality  as  vigorous  and  brave  as  it  was  sweet;  and  the 
particular  radical  thought  he  at  any  time  expressed,  derived  its 


power  to  animate  and  illuminate  other  minds  from  the  might 
of  the  manhood  which  was  felt  to  he  within  and  behind  it.  To 
'sweetness  and  light'  he  added  the  prime  quality  of  fearless 
manliness."  —  WHIFFLE. 

Emerson  on  Genius. 

"  It  is  the  nature  of  genius  to  spring,  like  the  rainbow,  daughter  of 
Wonder,  from  the  invisible,  to  abolish  the  past  and  refuse  all 
history." 

Emerson  on  Newspaper  Reading. 

"Newspapers  have  done  much  to  abbreviate  expression,  and  so  to 
improve  style.  .  .  .  The  most  studious  and  engaged  man  can 
neglect  them  only  at  his  cost.  But  have  little  to  do  with  them. 
Learn  how  to  get  their  best,  too,  without  their  getting  yours. 
Do  not  read  them  when  the  mind  is  creative ;  and  do  not  read 
them  thoroughly,  column  by  column.  Remember  they  are  made 
for  everybody,  and  don't  try  to  get  what  is  not  meant  for  you.  . 
.  .  .  There  is  a  great  secret  in  knowing  what  to  keep  out  of  the 
mind,  as  well  as  what  to  put  in.  .  .  .  The  genuine  news  is  what 
you  want.  Practice  quick  searches  for  it.  Give  yourself  only 
so  many  minutes  for  the  paper.  Then  you  will  learn  to  avoid 
the  premature  reports  and  anticipations,  and  the  stuff  put  in  for 
people  who  have  nothing  to  think." 

The  Apostle  of  Sincerity. 

"  Emerson  preached  sincerity  as  among  the  first  of  virtues.  He 
never  hesitated  to  tell  the  poets,  prose  writers,  reformers, '  fanat 
ics,'  who  were  his  friends  and  acquaintances,  exactly  what  he 
thought  of  them.  .  .  .  He  could  afford  to  be  sincere,  for  every 
body  felt  there  was  no  taint  of  envy,  jealousy,  or  malice  in  his 
nature." 

Curtis  on  Emerson. 

"It  is  the  peculiarity  of  Emerson's  mind  to  be  always  on  the  alert. 
He  eats  no  lotus,  but  forever  quaffs  the  waters  which  engender 
immortal  thirst.  .  .  .  His  writings  have  no  imported  air.  If 
there  be  something  Oriental  in  his  philosophy  and  tropical  in 
his  imagination,  they  have  yet  the  strong  flavor  of  his  mother 
earth  —  the  underived  sweetness  of  the  open  Concord  sky,  and 
the  spacious  breadth  of  the  Concord  horizon." 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  139 

Transcendentalism  in  New  England. 
"A  new  avatar  of  the  old  Puritan  spirit."  —  H.  A.  BEERS. 

References. 

Conway's  Emerson,  chap.  xxi.     Cabot's  Emerson,  chap.  vii. 

O.  B.  Frothingham's  "Transcendentalism  in  New  England."     The 

Atlantic  Monthly,  October  and  November,  1878. 
Beers's  Initial  Studies  in  American  Literature,  pp.  9(3-103. 

An  Era  of  Agitation.     1830-1850.     "A  Modern  Renaissance." 

Philosophic  Inquiry.     "  Transcendentalism." 

Reforms.    Temperance,  Anti-slavery,  Social  Life. 

New  Religious  Sects.  Millerites,  Second  Adventists,  Mormons, 
Spiritualists,  Unitarians  (Conservatives,  followers  of  William 
Ellery  Channing;  Radicals,  those  of  Theodore  Parker). 

Caused  largely  by  Carlyle's  writings. 

Pulpit  Representative  of  the  movement. 
Theodore  Parker,  a  pupil  of  Emerson. 

The  Transcendental  Club. 

At  first,  "The  Symposium."      In  1849  it  was  succeeded  by  "The 

Town  and  Country  Club." 

Met  in  Boston,  Concord,  and  other  Massachusetts  towns. 
Founders.    Dr.  Channing  and  George  Ripley. 
Prominent  Members.    Emerson  (its  "prophet"),  Channing,  Alcott, 

Ripley,  Parker,  John  S.  Dwight,  James  Freeman  Clarke. 
Its  Organ.     The  Dial,  a  quarterly,  published  from  1840  to  1844. 

Devoted  to  mooted  points  in  philosophy,  history,  and  literature. 
"  If  I  were  a  Bostonian,  I  think  I  would  be  a  Transcendentalist."  — 

CHARLES  DICKENS. 
On  a  meeting  of  the  club,  this  "  congress  of  oracles,"  in  its  incipient 

stage,  read  Curtis's  Literary  and  Social  Essays,  pp.  24-26. 

Definitions  of  Transcendentalism. 

Emerson's.     "Modern  Idealism." 
Other  Definitions. 

"  A  new  philosophy  maintaining  that  nothing  is  everything  in 

general,  and  everything  is  nothing  in  particular." 
"  Intuitive  religion." 
"  A  belief  that  there  is  a  power  in  man  which  transcends  the 

senses  and  the  understanding." 
Its  Reformatory  Spirit.    "Well  shown  in  the  experiment  at 


140          EALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

Brook  Farm.     West  Roxbury,  Mass.     1841-1847. 

The  ideal  commonwealth  of  the  Transcendentalists. 

(Compare  with  More's  Utopia,  Sidney's  Arcadia,  Bacon's  The  New 

Atlantis,  and  Bellamy's  Looking  Backward.) 
"  A  remarkable  outburst  of  Romanticism  on  Puritan  ground." 
"  Plain  living  and  high  thinking." 
"A  strange  mixture  of  culture  and  agriculture." 
"  Communities  were  to  be  established  where  everything  should  be 

common,  save  common  sense."  —  LOWELL. 

Members.    George  Ripley,  Charles  A.  Dana,  Margaret  Fuller,  Haw 
thorne,  George  William  Curtis,  John  S.  Dwight. 
Emerson  was  not  a  member  of  the  community,  but  visited  it 
frequently,  and  sympathized  with  the  earnest  spirit  of  its 
supporters;    in  a  humorous  mood   he    described  it  as  "a 
French  Revolution  in  small,  an  Age  of  Reason  in  a  patty 
pan." 
Hawthorne  joined  the  company  of  experimenters,  but  lost  money 

and  health  in  the  venture,  and  was  not  happy  in  it. 
His  Blithedale  Romance  is  the  best  outcome  of  this  attempt 

at  social  reform. 

NOTE.  —  Interesting  reading  matter,  in  addition  to  the  references 
given  above,  on  this  epoch  of  New  England  history,  may  be 
found  in  George  T.  Bradford's  "Reminiscences  of  Brook  Farm  " 
(see  The  Century  Magazine,  November,  1892) ;  T.  W.  Higginson's 
Life  of  Margaret  Fuller;  Cooke's  Emerson,  chap.  viii. ;  Haw 
thorne's  American  Notes;  the  first  pages  of  Lowell's  essay  on 
Thoreau  in  My  Study  Windows ;  and  Willis  Boughton's  Sylla 
bus  of  University  Extension  Lectures  on  Brook  Farm. 


HENRY  DAVID    THOREAU. 


HENRY  DAVID   THOREAU. 

NATURALIST,  STOIC,  SCHOLAR,  TKANSCENDENTALIST. 


EXTRACTS. 

FROM    "  WALDEN." 

I  SHOULD  not  talk  so  much  about  myself  if  there  were 
anybody  else  I  knew  so  well. 

I  think  that  we  may  safely  trust  a  great  deal  more  than 
we  do.  We  may  waive  just  so  much  care  of  ourselves  as 
we  honestly  bestow  elsewhere. 

We  are  eager  to  tunnel  under  the  Atlantic,  and  bring  the 
Old  World  some  weeks  nearer  to  the  New ;  but  perchance 
the  first  news  that  will  leak  through  into  the  broad,  flap 
ping  American  ear  will  be  that  the  Princess  Adelaide  has 
the  whooping-cough. 

Nations  are  possessed  with  an  insane  ambition  to  per 
petuate  the  memory  of  themselves  by  the  amount  of  ham 
mered  stone  they  leave.  What  if  equal  pains  were  taken 
to  smooth  and  polish  their  manners  ? 

Those  who  would  not  know  what  to  do  with  more  leisure 
than  they  now  enjoy,  I  might  advise  to  work  twice  as 
hard  as  they  do,  —  work  till  they  pay  for  themselves  and 
get  their  free  papers. 

143 


144  HENRY  DAVID   THOREAU. 

I  am  convinced  both  by  faith  and  experience  that  to 
maintain  one's  self  on  this  earth  is  not  a  hardship,  but  a 
pastime,  if  we  will  live  simply  and  wisely. 

Books  are  the  treasured  wealth  of  the  world,  and  the 
fit  inheritance  of  generations  and  nations. 

I  think  that,  having  learned  our  letters,  we  should  read 
the  best  that  is  in  literature,  and  not  be  forever  repeating 
our  a  b  abs,  and  words  of  one  syllable,  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  classes. 

Society  is  commonly  too  cheap.  We  meet  at  very  short 
intervals,  not  having  had  time  to  acquire  any  new  value 
for  each  other.  .  .  .  The  value  of  a  man  is  not  in  his 
skin,  that  we  should  touch  him. 

Only  that  day  dawns  to  which  we  are  awake. 

If  you  would  learn  to  speak  all  tongues  and  conform  to 
the  customs  of  all  nations,  if  you  would  travel  farther 
than  all  travellers,  be  naturalized  in  all  climes,  and  cause 
the  Sphinx  to  dash  her  head  against  a  stone,  obey  the 
precept  of  the  old  philosopher,  Explore  thyself. 

Drive  a  nail  home  and  clinch  it  so  faithfully  that  you 
can  wake  up  in  the  night  and  think  of  your  work  with 
satisfaction,  —  a  work  at  which  you  would  not  be  ashamed 
to  invoke  the  Muse.  So  will  help  you  God,  and  so  only. 

A  huckleberry  never  reaches  Boston;  they  have  not 
been  known  there  since  they  grew  on  her  three  hills.  The 
ambrosial  and  essential  part  of  the  fruit  is  lost  with  the 
bloom  which  is  rubbed  off  in  the  market  cart. 

Men  say  they  know  many  things; 
But  lo !  they  have  taken  wings,  — 


EXTRACTS.  145 

The  arts  and  sciences, 
And  a  thousand  appliances  ; 
The  wind  that  blows 
Is  all  that  anybody  knows. 

Beware  of  all  enterprises  that  require  new  clothes,  and 
not  rather  a  new  wearer  of  clothes.  If  there  is  not  a  new 
man,  how  can  the  new  clothes  be  made  to  fit  ?  ...  All 
men  want  not  something  to  do  ivith,  but  something  to  do, 
or  rather  something  to  be. 

FROM    "  EARLY    SPRING    IN    MASSACHUSETTS." 

No  sooner  has  the  ice  of  Walden  melted,  than  the  winds 
begin  to  play  in  dark  ripples  over  the  face  of  the  virgin 
waters.  It  is  affecting  to  see  nature  so  tender,  however 
old,  and  wearing  none  of  the  wrinkles  of  age.  Ice  dis 
solved  is  as  perfect  water  as  if  it  had  been  melted  a 
million  years.  What  if  our  moods  could  dissolve  thus 
completely  ? 

I  cannot  think  or  understand  my  thoughts  unless  I  have 
infinite  room.  The  cope  of  heaven  is  not  too  high,  the 
sea  is  not  too  deep,  for  him  who  would  unfold  a  great 
thought.  It  must  feed  me,  warm  me,  clothe  me.  It  must 
be  an  entertainment  to  which  my  whole  nature  is  invited. 
I  must  know  that  the  gods  are  my  fellow-guests. 

Nothing  can  be  more  useful  to  a  man  than  the  determi 
nation  not  to  be  hurried. 

FROM    "  SUMMER." 

DECAY  and  disease  are  often  beautiful,  like  the  pearly 
tear  of  the  shell-fish  and  the  hectic  glow  of  consumption. 


146  HENRY  DAVID    THOREAU. 

Woe  to  him  who  wants  a  companion,  for  he  is  unfit  to 
be  the  companion  of  himself. 

Painters  are  wont,  in  their  pictures  of  Paradise,  to  strew 
the  field  too  thickly  with  flowers.  .  .  .  But  a  clover  field 
in  bloom  is  some  excuse  for  them. 

It  seems  natural  that  rocks  that  have  lain  under  the 
heavens  so  long  should  be  gray,  as  it  were  an  intermediate 
color  between  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 

FROM  "WINTER." 

I  LOVE  nature  partly  because  she  is  not  man,  but  a  re 
treat  from  him.  In  her  midst  I  can  be  glad  with  an  entire 
gladness.  .  .  .  Man  makes  me  wish  for  another  world ; 
she  makes  me  content  with  this. 

To  live  in  relations  of  truth  and  sincerity  with  men  is 
to  dwell  in  a  frontier  country. 

Men  wear  their  hats  for  use  ;  women  theirs  for  ornament. 

If  we  try  thoughts  by  their  quality,  not  their  quantity, 
I  may  find  that  a  restless  night  will  yield  more  than  the 
longest  journey. 

The  death  of  friends  should  inspire  us  as  much  as  their 
lives. 

In  prosperity  I  remember  God ;  in  adversity  I  remember 
my  own  elevation,  and  only  hope  to  see-  God  again. 

FROM    HIS    LETTERS. 

CAN'T  you  extract  any  advantage  out  of  that  depression 
of  spirits  you  refer  to  ?  It  suggests  to  me  cider-mills, 
wine-presses,  etc.  All  kinds  of  pressure  or  power  should 
be  used,  and  made  to  turn  some  kind  of  machinery. 


EXTRACTS.  147 

It  is  strange  that  men  will  talk  of  miracles,  revela 
tion,  inspiration,  and  the  like,  as  things  past,  while  love 
remains. 

Warm  your  body  by  healthful  exercise,  not  by  cowering 
over  a  stove.  Warm  your  spirit  by  performing  indepen 
dently  noble  deeds,  not  by  ignobly  seeking  the  sympathy 
of  your  fellows,  who  are  no  better  than  yourself. 

If  you  would  convince  a  man  that  he  does  wrong,  do 
right.  But  do  not  care  to  convince  him.  Men  will  believe 
what  they  see.  Let  them  see. 

Men  and  boys  are  learning  all  kinds  of  trades  but  how 
to  make  men  of  themselves. 

A  noble  person  confers  no  such  gift  as  his  whole  confi 
dence  ;  none  so  exalts  the  giver  and  the  receiver ;  it  pro 
duces  the  truest  gratitude,  Perhaps  it  is  only  essential  to 
friendship  that  some  vital  trust  should  have  been  reposed 
by  the  one  in  the  other.  I  feel  addressed  and  probed  even 
to  the  remote  parts  of  my  being  when  one  nobly  shows, 
even  in  trivial  things,  an  implicit  faith  in  me.  .  .  .  What 
if  God  were  to  confide  in  us  for  a  moment!  Should  we 
not  then  be  gods  ? 

My  breath  is  sweet  to  me.  Oh,  how  I  laugh  when  I 
think  of  my  vague,  indefinite  riches.  No  run  on  my  bank 
can  drain  it ;  for  my  wealth  is  not  possession,  but  enjoy 
ment. 

SCATTERED    THOUGHTS. 

How  can  we  expect  a  harvest  of  thought  who  have  not 
had  a  seed-time  of  character  ? 

Sugar  is  not  so  sweet  to  the  palate  as  sound  to  the 
healthy  ear. 


148  HENRY  DAVID    THOEEAU. 

The  bluebird  carries  the  sky  on  his  back. 

Only  he  can  be  trusted  with  gifts  who  can  present  a 
face  of  bronze  to  expectations. 

One  wise  sentence  is  worth  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
many  times  over. 

I  regard  the  horse  as  a  human  being  in  a  humbler  state 
of  existence. 

If  one  hesitates  in  his  path,  let  him  not  proceed.  Let 
him  respect  his  doubts ;  for  doubts,  too,  may  have  some 
divinity  in  them. 

Love  is  a  severe  critic.  Hate  can  pardon  more  than 
love.  They  who  aspire  to  love  worthily,  subject  them 
selves  to  an  ordeal  more  rigid  than  any  other. 

I  have  but  few  companions  on  the  shore : 

They  scorn  the  strand  who  sail  upon  the  sea ; 

Yet  oft  I  think  the  ocean  they've  sailed  o'er 
Is  deeper  known  upon  the  strand  to  me. 

THE  FISHER'S  BOY. 


REFERENCES.  149 


KEFEKENCES. 

William  Ellery  Channing's  Thoreau:   The  Poet  Naturalist.    ("A  rhap 
sody  rather  than  a  biography.") 
Frank  B.  Sanborn's  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 
Henry  A.  Page's  Thoreau  :  His  Life  and  Aims. 
Familiar  Letters  of  Henry  D.  Thoreau.     (Edited  by  F.  B.  Sanborn.) 
Ralph  W.  Emerson's  Memoir  of   Thoreau.     (Published  as  Preface  to 

Thoreau's  Excursions,  and  in  The  Literary  World,  March  26,  1881.) 
Emerson's  poem,  Woodnotes. 

T.  W.  Higginson's  Short  Studies  of  American  Authors. 
James  R.  Lowell's  Essay  on  Thoreau  in  My  Study  Windows.     ("The 

subtlest  of  Lowell's  minor  reviews."  — STEDMAN.) 
John  Burroughs's  Indoor  Studies. 
M.  D.  Conway's  Emerson  (chap.  xxv.). 

Henry  A.  Beers's  Initial  Studies  in  American  Letters.     (Pp.  110-114.) 
Appletons'  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography . 
Duyckinck's  Cyclopsedia  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  II. 
Hawthorne  and  Lemmon's  American  Literature. 
George  B.  Bartlett's  Concord  Guide  Book.     (Pp.  72-75.) 
Theodore  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrinep. 
Extracts  from  Thoreau's  writings  may  be  found  in  — 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.     Vol.  VII. 

Beers's  Century  of  American  Literature. 

F.  H.  Underwood's  American  Authors. 

Masterpieces  of  American  Literature. 
The   Atlantic  Monthly.    August,   1862.      September,  1863   (Article  by 

Louisa  Alcott). 

The  North  American  Review.     October,  1863.     October,  1865. 
The  Century  Magazine.    July,  1882  (Article  by  John  Burroughs). 
The   New    England    Magazine.      December,  1890  ("Emerson  and   his 

Friends."     Illustrated). 
Harper's  Magazine.     August,  1894  (Howells's  "  My  First  Visit  to  New 

England  "). 
Scribner's  Magazine.    March,  1895  ("  Thoreau's  Poems  of  Nature  "). 


150  HENRY  DAVID    THOEEAU. 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

July  12, 1817. 
May  6, 1862. 

His  writings,  prose  and  verse,  are  his  best  biography. 
Birthplace. 

Concord,  Mass.  ("  To  him,  Concord  was  the  centre  of  the  uni 
verse,  and  he  seriously  contemplated  annexing  the  rest  of 
the  planet  to  Concord.") 

House,  on  the  Virginia  road,  still  standing. 

For  view,  see  Margaret  Sidney's  Old  Concord:  Her  Highways 
and  Byways. 

"  Thoreau  was  the  best  topographer  of  his  birthplace." 

He  never  left  Concord  except  fora  lecturing  tour  or  a  pedestrian 
excursion. 

Grandfather. 

A  Frenchman,  who  married  in  Boston  a  woman  of  Scotch  birth. 
Thoreau's  speech  bore  a  slight  French  accent,  and  his  pronun 
ciation  of  the  letter  "  r  "  was  always  peculiar. 
Early  Home. 

One  of  simplicity  and  poverty. 

A  gathering-place  for  the  early  Abolitionists,  and  a  refuge  for 

fugitive  slaves. 
Education. 

School  life  in  Concord  and  Boston. 

At  Harvard.     Degree  in  1837.     (He  refused  his  diploma,  con 
sidering  it  not  worth  five  dollars.) 

Made  possible  by  the  special  efforts  of  his  family  and  aunts. 
Independent.     Made  no  friends.     Roomed  in  Hollis  Hall. 
A  lifelong  student  of  the  classic  literatures. 
Acquaintance  with  Emerson,  fourteen  years  his  senior. 
The  most  valuable  and  intimate  of  his  acquaintances. 
Dated  from  his  college  days. 


LIFE  AND    WORKS.  151 

Emerson  wrote  a  letter  of  recommendation  for  him  as  teacher. 
At  one  time  Thoreau  was  an  inmate  of  Emerson's  household. 
An  unconscious  disciple  of  the  Concord  seer. 

Begins  to  Lecture.     1838. 

Various  Occupations. 

Manufactured  lead  pencils  (he  stopped  doing  so  when  he  had 

made  a  perfect  one). 
Taught   in   the   Concord   Academy.     Tutored  in  the  family  of 

Emerson's   brother  at   Staten   Island.     Surveyed   land   for 

Concord  fanners. 

Builds  his  "  Hermitage"  (1845),  on  land  belonging  to  Emerson,  by 
the  shore  of  Walden  Pond,  —  "God's  Drop,"  "a  gem  of 
the  first  water  that  Concord  wears  in  her  coronet." 
View.     Selected  Proofs,  Century  Co.,  No.  46.     Duyckinck,  Vol. 
II.,  p.  002. 

"  Who  liv'st  all  alone, 
Close  to  the  bone, 
And  where  life  is  sweetest, 
Constantly  eatest." 

The  Old  Marlborouyh  Road. 
Erected  by  Himself  &t  the  cost  of  less  than  thirty  dollars. 

Ten  feet  by  fifteen  ;  garret,  closet,  door,  and  window  ;  no 

lock  or  curtain. 

"There  is  some  of  the  same  fitness  in  a  man's  building  his 
own  house  that  there  is  in  a  bird's  building  her  own 
nest." 

Spent  for  food  about  twenty-seven  cents  a  week. 
Lived  here  for  two  years,  in  order  to  read,  write,  and  study  nature. 
Abandoned  the  life  when  his  object  was  accomplished.     Did 
not  recommend  any  one  to  try  the  same  experience  unless 
he  had  "a  good  supply  of  internal  sunshine." 
"  I  am  no  more  lonely  than  Walden  Pond  itself.     What  com 
pany   has   that,    I   pray?      And   yet   it   has   not   the   blue 
devils,  but  blue  angels  in  it,  in  the  azure  tint  of  its  waters." 
Kept   a   calendar  of   the   flowers  of   the   neighborhood   (knew 

the  day  of  blossoming  for  each  one). 
Many  and  various  Visitors  sought  him  out  in  this  retreat. 


152  HENRT  DAVID   TIIOREAU. 

Here  Ellery  Channing  and  Thoreau  practised  "the  art  of  taking 
walks." 

Site  is  marked  by  a  cairn  of  stones,  which  every  pilgrim  to  the 
spot  makes  higher  by  his  contribution  from  the  shore  of 
the  pond.  For  view,  see  Margaret  Sidney's  Old  Concord, 
and  The  New  Enyland  Magazine,  November,  1893,  p.  300. 

The  furniture  of  the  hut  and  other  Thoreau  relics  may  be  seen 

in  the  "  Antiquarian  House,"  Concord. 
Publishes     A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimac  Rivers.       1849. 

"A  collection  of  essays  tied  together  by  a  slight  thread  of 
travel."  — BURROUGHS. 

It  abounds  in  excellent  quotations,  particularly  from  the  minor 

Elizabethan  poets. 

Publishes  Walden;  or,  Life  in  the  Woods.     ("A  sermon  on  econ 
omy.")     1854. 

"The  only  book  printed  in  America,  to  my  thinking,  that  bears 
an  annual  perusal."  -•- HIGGINSON. 

"Few  authors  since  Shakespeare  have  been  less  anxious  to 
print  their  works." 

"Capital  reading,  but  very  wicked  and  heathenish." — WIIIT- 

T1ER. 

"Like  many  reformers,  he  carried  his  views  to  an  extreme." 
"  In  no  other  book  can  one  come  so  close  to  Nature's  heart. 
We  hear  in  it  the  weird  cry  of  the  loons  over  the  water  ;  we 
watch  the  frolics  of  the  squirrels  ;  we  observe  the  thousand 
phenomena  of  the  wonderful  little  lake  ;  we  listen  to  the 
forest  sounds  by  day  and  by  night ;  we  study  the  tell-tale 
snow ;  we  watch,  with  bated  breath,  a  battle  to  the  death 
between  two  armies  of  ants.  For  minute  and  loving  descrip 
tions  of  the  woods  and  fields,  Walden  has  had  no  rival." 
—  F.  L.  PATTEE. 

"If  every  quiet  country  town  in  New  England  had  a  son  who, 
with  a  lore  like  Selborne's  and  an  eye  like  Buffon's,  had 
watched  and  studied  its  landscape  and  history,  and  then 
published  the  result,  as  Thoreau  has  done,  in  a  book  as 
redolent  of  genuine  and  perceptive  sympathy  with  nature 
as  a  clover-field  of  honey,  New  England  would  seem  as 
poetic  and  beautiful  as  Greece."  —  G.  W.  CURTIS. 


LIFE  AND    WORKS.  153 

Persons  referred  to  in  the  book. 

See  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines,  pp.  72,  73. 

Death  from  Consumption. 

Buried  in  Sleepy  Hollow,  Concord. 

Character  and  Temperament. 

"  Ilypaethral." 

"Like  his  native  air  in  winter,  —  clear,  frosty,  inexpressibly 
pure  and  bracing."  Stoical,  sturdily  independent,  a  con 
sistent  believer  in  individualism.  "His  affections  were 
more  deep  than  expansive." 

"  His  religion  was  that  of  Transcendentalism,  and  his  spirit  that 
of  other-worldliness." 

Self-centred.  —  "May  I  love  and  reverence  myself  above  all 
the  gods  that  man  ever  invented."  ("This  egotism  of  his 
is  a  Stylites  pillar,  after  all,  a  seclusion  which  keeps  him  in 
the  public  eye."  — LOWELL.) 

Renunciatory.  —  "  He  was  bred  to  no  profession  ;  he  never  mar 
ried  (his  celibacy  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  surrendered 
his  love  in  favor  of  his  brother)  ;  he  lived  alone  ;  he  never 
went  to  church  ;  he  never  voted  ;  he  refused  to  pay  a  tax 
to  the  State  (was  imprisoned  for  doing  so )  ;  he  ate  no  flesh, 
he  drank  no  wine,  he  never  knew  the  use  of  tobacco  ;  and. 
though  a  naturalist,  he  used  neither  a  trap  nor  gun."  - 
EMEKSON. 

"  Thoreau  seemed  to  me  a  man  who  had  experienced  Nature  as 
other  men  are  said  to  have  experienced  religion."  — E.  P. 
WUIPPLE. 
Appearance. 

Average  height ;  spare  build  ;  sloping  shoulders,  long  arms  ; 
large  hands  and  feet.  "  His  aspect  suggested  a  faun,  one 
who  was  in  the  secrets  of  the  wilderness." 

Features  marked. —Roman  nose,  large  overhanging  brows, 
deep-set,  expressive  blue  eyes,  prominent  lips. 

Abundant  dark-brown  hair.     Plain  in  dress. 

Resembled  Emerson  in  features,  expression,  and  tones  of  voice. 

A  woodcut  of  his  face  may  be  found  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
August,  1894,  p.  448,  and  in  the  Cyclopaedia  of  American 
Biography. 


154  HENRY  DAVID    THOREAU. 

Habits. 

Solitary.  Kept  "Fact-Books"  assiduously  and  very  systemati 
cally.  ("  He  recorded  the  state  of  his  personal  thermometer 
thirteen  times  a  day.")  Eead  with  a  pen  in  his  hand. 
(Left  thirty  manuscript  volumes  at  his  death.)  Ignored 
the  conventionalities  of  life.  Could  walk  thirty  miles  a 
day  for  weeks  together.  ("Thoreau  knew  the  world,  hav 
ing  '  travelled '  many  years  in  Concord."  )  Could  go  without 
food  and  water  longer  than  the  Indians.  Knew  the  notes 
of  all  birds,  insects,  and  animals.  He  did  not  read  novels 
or  stories. 
Ambition  and  Purpose. 

"  To  reduce  existence  to  the  lowest  terms."  To  cultivate  the 
power  of  understanding  and  enjoying  nature. 

"  Give  me  the  obscure  life,  the  cottage  of  the  poor  and  humble, 
the  work-days  of  the  world,  the  barren  fields  ;  the  smallest 
share  of  all  things  but  poetical  perception."  "  I  would  fain 
improve  every  opportunity  to  wonder  and  worship,  as  the 
sunflower  welcomes  the  light." 
Reputation. 

Thoreau  was  not  appreciated  in  his  lifetime. 

"  I  have  now  a  library  of  nearly  nine  hundred  volumes,  over 
seven  hundred  of  which  I  wrote  myself."  (Referring  to 
the  first  edition  of  A  Week,  which  consisted  of  a  thousand 
copies.) 

In  England,  Thoreau  was  not  known  at  all  when  he  died  ;  now 
one  of  his  biographers,  H.  A.  Page,  is  an  Englishman. 

"  His  fame  has  survived  two  of  the  greatest  dangers  that  can 
beset  reputation, — a  brilliant  satirist  for  critic  [Lowell] 
and  an  injudicious  friend  for  biographer  [Channing]."  — • 

HlGGINSON. 


APPELLATIONS.  155 


APPELLATIONS. 

CONCORD'S  RECLUSE. 

THE  BACHELOR  OF  THOUGHT  AND  NATURE. 

A  MASTER  OF  THE  SHORT  EPIGRAMMATIC  SENTENCE. 

A  FREE  AND  JUST  MAN. 

THE  INFLEXIBLE  THOREAU. 

A  BORN  PROTESTANT. 

A  KING  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 

A  MODERN  JAQUES. 

A  SCHOLASTIC  AND  PASTORAL  ORSON. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  ESSENE. 

AN  OBSERVER  OF  THE  RAREST,  CLOSEST  KIND. 

THE  POET-NATURALIST. 

AN    ANGLO-SAXON    REVERSAL    TO    THE     TYPE    OF    THE    RED 

INDIAN. 

A  LOVER  OF  NATURE  RATHER  THAN  OF  MAN. 
"  THOREAU    WAS    A    VERGIL,    WHITE     OF    SELBORNE,    ISAAK 

WALTON,   AND  YANKEE    SETTLER  ALL    IN  ONE."  —  A.   B. 

Alcott. 

THE  CHAMPION  OF  INDIVIDUALISM. 
NKW  ENGLAND'S  STOIC. 
CONCORD'S  PAN. 

"  This  Concord  Pan  would  oft  his  whistle  take, 
And  forth  from  wood  and  fen,  field,  hill,  and  lake, 
Trooping  around  him  in  their  several  guise, 
The  shy  inhabitants  their  haunts  forsake." 

A.  B.  AL.COTT. 


156  HENRY  DAVID    THOSE AU. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Thoreau. 

"  The  only  man  who  thoroughly  loved  both  Nature  and  Greek."  — 

J.  G.  KING. 
"His  soul  was  made  for  the  noblest  society;  he  had  in  a  short  life 

exhausted  the  capabilities  of  this  world ;    wherever  there  is 

knowledge,  wherever  there  is  virtue,  wherever  there  is  beauty, 

he  will  find  a  home."  —  EMERSON. 

"  To  hill  and  sky  his  face  was  known, 

It  seemed  the  likeness  of  their  own." 

•    .  EMERSON. 

"  His  metaphors  and  images  are  always  fresh  from  the  soil.  ...  As 
we  read  him,  it  seems  as  if  all  outdoors  had  kept  a  diary  and 
become  its  own  Montaigne."  —  LOWELL. 

"  In  his  own  house  he  was  one  of  those  characters  that  may  be 
called  household  treasures."  —  CHANNING. 

"  Modest  and  mild  and  kind, 
"Who  never  spurned  the  needing  from  thy  door  — 
(Door  of  thy  heart,  which  is  a  palace-gate) ; 
Temperate  and  faithful,  — in  whose  word  the  world 
Might  trust,  sure  to  repay ;  unvexed  by  care, 
Unawed  by  Fortune's  nod,  slave  to  no  lord, 
Nor  coward  to  thy  peers,  —  long  shalt  thou  live !  " 

CHANNING. 

Alcott's  sonnet  and  Louisa  Alcott's  poem  on  Thoreau. 

Thoreau  as  Poet. 

His  poems  are  short,   vigorous,   not    polished   in   style ;    they  are 

"  moralized  descriptions  of  nature." 
His  Themes. 

Smoke.     Haze.     Mist.     Mountains.     Sympathy.     True  Love. 

Inspiration. 

Made  Translations  from  a  number  of  the  classic  poets,  including 
two  of  vEschylus'  tragedies. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES.  157 

"  He  possessed  the  essential  element  of  the  poet,  a  soaring  im 
agination,  but  he  lacked  the  art  of  musical  expression." 
His  Theory  of  Poetry. 

"It  is  not  important  that  the  poet  should  say  some  particular 
thing,  but  that  he  should  speak  in  harmony  with  nature. 
The  tone  and  pitch  of  his  voice  is  the  main  thing." 
His  Favorite  Poets  and  Poems. 

Homer  and  Vergil,  Chaucer,  Milton,  Ossian. 

The  Robin  Hood  Ballads. 

Carlyle  was  his  only  favorite  among  modern  writers. 

His  Prose  Writings. 

A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack  Rivers.  Walden.  Excur 
sions  in  Field  and  Forest.  The  Maine  Woods.  Cape  Cod. 
Letters  to  Various  Persons,  with  nine  poems.  A  Yankee  in 
Canada.  Early  Spring  in  Massachusetts.  Summer.  Autumn, 
Winter. 

Only  the  first  two  works  were  published  in  his  lifetime. 

"Homeliness  is  almost  as  great  a  merit  in  a  book  as  in  a  house,  if 
the  reader  would  abide  there."  — THOREAU. 

His  Friends. 

Emerson,  Margaret  Fuller,  "William  E.  Channing,  A.  Bronson 
Alcott,  Hawthorne,  John  Brown,  Horace  Greeley. 

Thoreau  and  Emerson. 

"  While  Thoreau  was  to  a  certain  degree  stamped  by  the  more  pow 
erful  mind  of  Emerson,  it  is  certain  that  the  latter  was  much 
influenced  by  Thoreau.  Emerson  was  blind  to  less  obvious 
processes  -of  nature  till  Thoreau  opened  his  eyes."  —  F.  L. 
PATTEE. 

"Among  the  pistillate  plants  kindled  to  fruitage  by  the  Emersonian 

pollen,  Thoreau  is  thus  far  the  most  remarkable." 
His  Several  Concord  Homes. 

Described  in  the  first  chapter  of  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 
Lowell  on  Thoreau. 

"It  is  not  so  much  the  True  that  he  loves  as  the  Out-of-the-Way. 
.  .  .  He  valued  everything  in  proportion  as  he  fancied  it  to  be 
exclusively  his  own.  .  .  .  His  whole  life  was  a  rebuke  of  the 
waste  and  aimlessness  of  our  American  luxury,  which  is  an 
abject  enslavement  to  tawdry  upholstery.  .  .  .  His  works  give 
one  the  feeling  of  a  sky  full  of  stars,  —  something  impressive 
and  exhilarating  certainly,  something  high  overhead  and  freckled 


158  HENRY  DAVID    THOSE AU. 

thickly  with  spots  of  isolated  brightness ;  but  whether  these  have 
any  mutual  relation  with  each  other,  or  have  any  concern  with 
our  mundane  affairs,  is  for  the  most  part  matter  of  conjecture,  — 
astrology  as  yet,  and  not  astronomy." 


"  Thoreau  believed  that  one  of  the  arts  of  life  was  to  make  the  most  out 

of  it." 
"  Thoreau  chose  to  be  rich  by  making  his  wants  few  and  supplying  them 

himself." 
"He  preferred  the  Indian  to  the  civilized  man,  and  indigenous  plants 

to  imported  ones." 
"  I  leave  this  world  without  a  regret."     (Said  in  his  last  illness.) 


Suggested  Readings. 

Chapter  on  Friendship  in  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack 
Rivers. 

On  Reading  the  Classics,  and  The  Battle  of  the  Ants,  from  Walden. 
Question  for  Debate. 

Was  Thoreau's  life  a  success? 


EDaAR  ALLAN  POE. 


EDGAR  ALLAN  POE. 

ROMANCEK,  POET,  CRITIC. 


EXTRACTS. 

IT  was  many  and  many  a  year  ago, 

In  a  kingdom  by  the  sea, 
That  a  maiden  there  lived  whom  you  may  know 

By  the  name  of  Annabel  Lee  ; 
And  this  maiden  she  lived  with  no  other  thought 

Than  to  love  and  be  loved  by  me. 

ANNABEL  LEE. 

AND  the  Raven,  never  flitting,  still  is  sitting,  still  is  sitting 
On  the  pallid  bust  of  Pallas  just  above  my  chamber  door ; 
And  his  eyes  have  all  the  seeming  of  a  demon's  that  is 

dreaming, 
And  the  lamp-light  o'er  him  streaming  throws  his  shadow 

on  the  floor ; 
And  my  soul  from  out  that  shadow  that  lies  floating  on 

the  floor, 

Shall  be  lifted  —  nevermore  ! 

THE  HAVEN. 

HEAR  the  sledges  with  the  bells  — 

Silver  bells ! 

What  a  world  of  merriment  their  melody  foretells  ! 
How  they  tinkle,  tinkle,  tinkle 
In  the  icy  air  of  night ! 
161 


162  EDGAR   ALLAN  FOE. 

While  the  stars  that  oversprinkle 
All  the  heavens,  seem  to  twinkle 

With  a  crystalline  delight ; 
Keeping  time,  time,  time, 
In  a  sort  of  Eunic  rhyme, 

To  the  tintinnabulation  that  so  musically  wells 
From  the  bells,  bells,  bells,  bells, 

Bells,  bells,  bells  — 
From  the  jingling  and  the  tinkling  of  the  bells. 

THE  BELLS. 

AND  now,  as  the  night  was  senescent 
And  the  star-dials  pointed  to  morn  — 
As  the  star-dials  hinted  of  morn  — 

At  the  end  of  our  path  a  liquescent 
And  nebulous  lustre  was  born, 

Out  of  which  a  miraculous  crescent 
Arose  with  a  duplicate  horn  — 

Astarte's  bediamonded  crescent 
Distinct  with  its  duplicate  horn. 

ULALUME. 

AROUND,  by  lifting  winds  forgot, 
Resignedly  beneath  the  sky 
The  melancholy  waters  lie. 

THE  CITY  IN  THE  SEA. 

Is  all  that  we  see  or  seem 
But  a  dream  within  a  dream  ? 

A  DREAM  WITHIN  A  DREAM. 

THOU  wast  that  all  to  me,  love, 
For  which  my  soul  did  pine  — 


EXTRACTS.  163 

A  green  isle  in  the  sea,  love, 

A  fountain  and  a  shrine, 
All  wreathed  with  fairy  fruits  and  flowers, 

And  all  the  flowers  were  mine. 

To  ONE  IN  PARADISE. 

AH,  broken  is  the  golden  bowl !  the  spirit  flown  forever ! 
Let  the  bell   toll !  —  a  saintly  soul  floats  on  the  Stygian 

river ; 
And   Guy  de  Vere,  hast   thou   no  tear  ?  —  weep   now  or 

never  more ! 

See  !  on  yon  drear  and  rigid  bier  low  lies  thy  love,  Lenore !  — 
An   anthem    for   the   queenliest  dead    that  ever   died   so 

young  - 

A  dirge  for  her,  the  doubly  dead  in  that  she  died  so  young. 

LENORE. 

IT  is  an  evil  growing  out  of  our  republican  institutions, 
that  here  a  man  of  large  purse  has  usually  a  very  little 
soul  which  he  keeps  in  it.  The  corruption  of  taste  is  a 
portion  or  a  pendant  of  the  dollar-manufacture. 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  FURNITURE. 

THERE  is  one  dear  topic,  however,  on  which  my  memory 
fails  me  not.  It  is  the  person  of  Ligeia.  In  stature  she 
was  tall,  somewhat  slender,  and,  in  her  latter  days,  even 
emaciated.  I  would  in  vain  attempt  to  portray  the  ma 
jesty,  the  quiet  ease,  of  her  demeanor,  or  the  incompre 
hensible  lightness  and  elasticity  of  her  footfall.  She  came 
and  departed  as  a  shadow.  I  was  never  made  aware  of 
her  entrance  into  my  closed  study,  save  by  the  dear  music 
of  her  low  sweet  voice,  as  she  placed  her  marble  hand 
upon  my  shoulder. 

LIGEIA. 


164  EDGAR   ALLAN  FOE. 

NEVER  shall  I  forget  the  sensations  of  awe,  horror,  and 
admiration  with  which  I  gazed  about  me.  The  boat  ap 
peared  to  be  hanging,  as  if  by  magic,  midway  down,  upon 
the  interior  surface  of  a  tunnel  vast  in  circumference,  pro 
digious  in  depth,  and  whose  perfectly  smooth  sides  might 
have  been  mistaken  for  ebony,  but  for  the  bewildering 
rapidity  with  which  they  spun  around,  and  for  the  gleam 
ing  and  ghastly  radiance  they  shot  forth,  as  the  rays  of 
the  full  moon,  from  that  circular  rift  among  the  clouds 
which  I  have  already  described,  streamed  in  a  flood  of 
golden,  glory  along  the  black  walls,  and  far  away  down 
into  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  abyss. 

A  DESCENT  INTO  THE  MAELSTROM. 

THERE  are  chords  in  the  hearts  of  the  most  reckless 
which  cannot  be  touched  without  emotion.  Even  with 
the  utterly  lost,  to  whom  life  and  death  are  equally  jests, 
there  are  matters  of  which  no  jest  can  be  made. 

THE  MASQUE  OF  THE  RED  DEATH. 

THE  chest  had  been  full  to  the  brim,  and  we  spent  the 
whole  day,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  next  night,  in 
scrutiny  of  its  contents.  There  had  been  nothing  like 
order  or  arrangement.  Everything  had  been  heaped  in 
promiscuously.  Having  assorted  all  with  care,  we  found 
ourselves  possessed  of  even  vaster  wealth  than  we  had  at 
first  supposed.  In  coin  there  was  rather  more  than  four 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  estimating  the  value 
of  the  pieces,  as  accurately  as  we  could,  by  the  tables  of 
the  period.  There  was  not  a  particle  of  silver.  All  was 
gold  of  antique  date  and  of  great  variety,  —  French,  Span 
ish,  and  German  money,  with  a  few  English  guineas,  and 
some  counters,  of  which  we  had  never  seen  specimens  be- 


EXTRACTS.  165 

fore.  There  were  several  very  large  and  heavy  coins,  so 
worn  that  we  could  make  nothing  of  their  inscriptions. 
There  was  no  American  money.  The  value  of  the  jewels 
we  found  more  difficulty  in  estimating.  There  were  dia 
monds  —  some  of  them  exceedingly  large  and  fine  —  a  hun 
dred  and  ten  in  all,  and  not  one  of  them  small ;  eighteen 
rubies  of  remarkable  brilliancy;  three  hundred  and  ten 
emeralds,  all  very  beautiful ;  and  twenty-one  sapphires 
with  ,an  opal.  These  stones  had  all  been  broken  from 
their  settings,  and  thrown  loose  in  the  chest.  The  settings 
themselves,  which  we  picked  out  from  among  the  other 
gold,  appeared  to  have  been  beaten  up  with  hammers,  as 
if  to  prevent  identification.  Besides  all  this,  there  was  a 
vast  quantity  of  solid  gold  ornaments,  —  nearly  two  hun 
dred  massive  finger  and  ear  rings ;  rich  chains  (thirty 
of  these,  if  I  remember) ;  eighty-three  very  large  and 
heavy  crucifixes ;  five  gold  censers  of  great  value  ;  a  pro 
digious  golden  punch-bowl,  ornamented  with  richly  chased 
vine-leaves  and  bacchanalian  figures ;  with  two  sword- 
handles  exquisitely  embossed,  and  many  other  smaller 
articles  which  I  cannot  recollect.  The  weight  of  these 
valuables  exceeded  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  avoir 
dupois  ;  and  in  this  estimate  I  have  not  included  one  hun 
dred  and  ninety-seven  superb  gold  watches,  three  of  the 
number  being  worth  each  five  hundred  dollars,  if  one. 
Many  of  them  were  very  old,  and  as  timekeepers  valu- 
less,  the  works  having  suffered  more  or  less  from  corro 
sion  ;  but  all  were  richly  jewelled  and  in  cases  of  great 
worth.  We  estimated  the  entire  contents  of  the  chest, 
that  night,  at  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars;  and  upon 
the  subsequent  disposal  of  the  trinkets  and  jewels  (a  few 
being  retained  for  our  own  use),  it- was  found  that  we  had 
greatly  undervalued  the  treasure. 


166  EDGAR  ALLAN  FOE. 

When,  at  length,  we  had  concluded  our  examination,  and 
the  intense  excitement  of  the  time  had,  in  some  measure, 
subsided,  Legrand,  who  saw  that  I  was  dying  with  im 
patience  for  a  solution  of  this  most  extraordinary  riddle, 
entered  into  a  full  detail  of  all  the  circumstances  connected 
with  it. 

"  You  remember,"  said  he,  "  the  night  when  I  handed 
you  the  rough  sketch  I  had  made  of  the  scarabaeus.  You 
recollect  also,  that  I  became  quite  vexed  at  you  for  insist 
ing  that  my  drawing  resembled  a  death's-head.  When 
you  at  first  made  this  assertion  I  thought  you  were  jest 
ing  ;  but  afterward  I  called  to  mind  the  peculiar  spots  on 
the  back  of  the  insect,  and  admitted  to  myself  that  your 
remark  had  some  little  foundation  in  fact.  Still  the  sneer 
at  my  graphic  powers  irritated  me,  —  for  I  am  considered 
a  good  artist,  —  and  therefore,  when  you  handed  me  the 
scrap  of  parchment,  I  was  about  to  crumple  it  up,  and 
throw  it  angrily  into  the  fire." 

"  The  scrap  of  paper,  you  mean,"  said  I. 

"  No  :  it  had  much  the  appearance  of  paper,  and  at  first 
I  supposed  it  to  be  such ;  but  when  I  came  to  drawing  upon 
it,  I  discovered  it  at  once  to  be  a  piece  of  very  thin  parch 
ment.  It  was  quite  dirty,  you  remember.  Well,  as  I  was 
in  the  very  act  of  crumpling  it  up,  my  glance  fell  upon 
the  sketch  at  which  you  had  been  looking;  and  you  may 
imagine  my  astonishment,  -when  I  perceived,  in  fact,  the 
figure  of  a  death's-head  just  where,  it  seemed  to  me,  I  had 
made  the  drawing  of  a  beetle.  For  a  moment  I  was  too 
much  amazed  to  think  with  accuracy.  I  knew  that  my 
design  was  very  different  in  detail  from  this,  although 
there  was  a  certain  similarity  in  general  outline.  Pres 
ently  I  took  a  candle,  and,  seating  myself  at  the  other  end 


EXTRACTS.  167 

of  the  room,  proceeded  to  scrutinize  the  parchment  more 
closely.  Upon  turning  it  over,  I  saw  my  own  sketch  upon 
the  reverse,  just  as  I  had  made  it.  My  first  idea  now 
was  mere  surprise  at  the  really  remarkable  similarity  of 
outline,  —  at  the  singular  coincidence  involved  in  the  fact, 
that,  unknown  to  me,  there  should  have  been  a  skull  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  parchment,  immediately  beneath  my 
figure  of  the  scarabseus,  and  that  this  skull,  not  only  in 
outline,  but  in  size,  should  so  closely  resemble  my  draw 
ing.  I  say,  the  singularity  of  this  coincidence  absolutely 
stupefied  me  for  a  time.  This  is  the  usual  effect  of  such 
coincidences.  The  mind  struggles  to  establish  a  connec 
tion,  —  a  sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  —  and,  being  unable 
to  do  so,  suffers  a  species  of  temporary  paralysis.  But, 
when  I  recovered  from  this  stupor,  there  dawned  upon  me 
gradually  a  conviction  which  startled  me  even  far  more 
than  the  coincidence.  I  began  distinctly,  positively,  to 
remember  that  there  had  been  no  drawing  upon  the  parch 
ment  when  I  made  my  sketch  of  the  scarabaeus.  I  became 
perfectly  certain  of  this  ;  for  I  recollected  turning  up  first 
one  side  and  then  the  other,  in  search  of  the  cleanest  spot. 
Had  the  skull  been  there,  of  course  I  could  not  have  failed 
to  notice  it.  Here  was  indeed  a  mystery  which  I  felt  it 
impossible  to  explain ;  but,  even  at  that  early  moment, 
there  seemed  to  glimmer  faintly,  within  the  most  remote 
and  secret  chambers  of  my  intellect,  a  glowworm-like  con 
ception  of  that  truth  which  last  night's  adventure  brought 
to  so  magnificent  a  demonstration.  I  arose  at  once,  and 
putting  the  parchment  securely  away,  dismissed  all  further 
reflection  until  I  should  be  alone." 

THE  GOLD  BUG. 


168  EDGAR  ALLAN  FOE. 

DIVIDING  the  world  of  mind  into  its  three  most  imme 
diately  obvious  distinctions,  we  have  the  Pure  Intellect, 
Taste,  and  the  Moral  Sense.  I  place  Taste  in  the  middle, 
because  it  is  just  this  position  which,  in  the  mind,  it 
occupies.  It  holds  intimate  relations  with  either  extreme ; 
but  from  the  Moral  Sense  is  separated  by  so  faint  a  dif 
ference  that  Aristotle  has  not  hesitated  to  place  some  of 
its  operations  among  the  virtues  themselves.  Neverthe 
less,  we  find  the  offices  of  the  trio  marked  with  a  sufficient 
distinction.  Just  as  the  Intellect  concerns  itself  with 
Truth,  so  Taste  informs  us  of  the  Beautiful,  while  the 
Moral  Sense  is  regardful  of  Duty.  Of  this  latter,  while 
Conscience  teaches  us  the  obligation,  and  Reason  the  ex 
pediency,  Taste  contents  itself  'with  displaying  the  charms ; 
waging  war  upon  Vice  solely  on  the  ground  of  her  de 
formity  —  her  disproportion  —  her  animosity  to  the  fitting, 
to  the  appropriate,  to  the  harmonious  —  in  a  word,  to 
Beauty. 

An  immortal  instinct,  deep  within  the  spirit  of  man,  is 
thus  plainly  a  sense  of  the  Beautiful.  This  it  is  which 
administers  to  his  delight  in  the  manifold  forms,  and 
sounds,  and  colors,  and  odors,  and  sentiments  amid  which 
he  exists.  And  just  as  the  lily  is  repeated  in  the  lake, 
or  the  eyes  of  Amaryllis  in  the  mirror,  so  is  the  mere  oral 
or  written  repetition  of  these  forms,  and  sounds,  and 
colors,  and  odors,  and  sentiments,  a  duplicate  source  of 
delight.  But  this  mere  repetition  is  not  poetry.  He  who 
shall  simply  sing,  with  however  glowing  enthusiasm,  or 
with  however  vivid  a  truth  of  description,  of  the  sights, 
and  sounds,  and  odors,  and  colors,  and  sentiments,  which 
greet  him  in  common  with  all  mankind  —  he,  I  say,  has 
yet  failed  to  prove  his  divine  title.  There  is  still  a  some- 


EXTRACTS.  169 

thing  in  the  distance  which  he  has  been  unable  to  attain. 
We  have  still  a  thirst  unquenchable,  to  allay  which  he  has 
not  shown  us  the  crystal  springs.  This  thirst  belongs  to 
the  Immortality  of  Man.  It  is  at  once  a  consequence  and 
an  indication  of  his  perennial  existence.  It  is  the  desire 
of  the  moth  for  the  star.  It  is  no  mere  appreciation  of 
the  Beauty  before  us,  but  a  wild  effort  to  reach  the 
Beauty  above.  Inspired  by  an  ecstatic  prescience  of  the 
glories  beyond  the  grave,  we  struggle,  by  multiform  com 
binations  among  the  things  and  thoughts  of  Time,  to 
attain  a  portion  of  that  Loveliness  whose  very  elements, 
perhaps,  appertain  to  Eternity  alone.  And  thus  when  by 
Poetry  —  or  when  by  Music,  the  most  entrancing  of  the 
Poetic  moods  —  we  find  ourselves  melted  into  tears,  we 
weep  then  —  not  as  the  Abbate  Gravina  supposes,  through 
excess  of  pleasure,  but  through  a  certain  petulant,  im 
patient  sorrow  at  our  inability  to  grasp  now,  wholly,  here 
on  earth,  at  once  and  forever,  those  divine  and  rapturous 
joys  of  which  through  the  poem,  or  through  the  music, 
we  attain  to  but  brief  and  -indeterminate  glimpses. 
'  The  struggle  to  apprehend  the  supernal  Loveliness  — 
this  struggle,  on  the  part  of  souls  fittingly  constituted  — 
has  given  to  the  world  all  that  which  it  (the  world)  has 
ever  been  enabled  at  once  to  understand  and  to  feel  as 
poetic.  .  .  . 

That  pleasure  which  is  at  once  the  most  pure,  the  most 
elevating,  and  the  most  intense,  is  derived,  I  maintain, 
from  the  contemplation  of  the  Beautiful.  In  the  contem 
plation  of  Beauty,  we  alone  find  it  possible  to  attain  that 
pleasurable  elevation  or  excitement  of  the  soul  which  we 
recognize  as  the  Poetic  Sentiment,  and  which  is  so  easily 
distinguished  from  Truth,  which  is  the  satisfaction  of  the 


170  EDGAR   ALLAN  POE. 

Reason,  or  from  Passion,  which  is  the  excitement  of  the 
heart.  I  make  Beauty,  therefore,  —  using  the  word  as  in 
clusive  of  the  sublime,  —  I  make  Beauty  the  promise  of 
the  poem,  simply  because  it  is  an  obvious  rule  of  Art  that 
effects  should  be  made  to  spring  as  directly  as  possible 
from  their  causes  ;  no  one  as  yet  having  been  weak 
enough  to  deny  that  the  peculiar  elevation  in  question  is 
at  least  most  readily  attainable  in  the  poem.  It  by  no 
means  follows,  however,  that  the  incitements  of  Passion, 
or  the  precepts  of  Duty,  or  even  the  lessons  of  Truth,  may 
not  be  introduced  into  a  poem,  and  with  advantage  ;  for 
they  may  subserve  incidentally,  in  various  ways,  the 
general  purposes  of  the  work  :  but  the  true  artist  will 
always  contrive  to  tone  them  down  in  proper  subjection 
to  that  Beauty  which  is  the  atmosphere  and  the  real 
essence  of  the  poem. 

THE  POETIC  PRINCIPLE. 


REFERENCES  171 


KEFERENCES. 

George  E.  Woodberry's  Life  of  Poe. 

T.  W.  Higginson's  Short  Studies  of  American  Authors. 

Stedman's  Poets  of  America. 

Andrew  Lang's  Letters  to  Dead  Authors. 

J.  G.  Wilson's  Bryant  and  His  Friends. 

Memoirs  by  R.  H.  Stoddard,  1880 ;  by  Ingram  (London,  1880). 

Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

H.  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 

Beers's  Initial  Studies  in  American  Letters. 

Hawthorne  and  Lemmon's  American  Literature. 

Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  II.  chap.  iv. 

Appletons'  Cyclopsedia  of  American  Biography. 

Duyckinck's  Cyclopsedia  of  American  Literature. 

Lippincott's  Biographical  Dictionary. 

Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  VI. 

C.  F.  Briggs's  Sketch  in  The  New  York  Independent.    June  24,  1884. 

The  Literary  World.    Dec.  16,  1882. 

The  New  England  Magazine.    March,   1894   ("  Pioneers  of  Southern 

Literature."  Illustrated). 

Harper's  Magazine.     September,  1872  ("  Poe  at  Fordham."     Illustrated). 
Scribner's  Magazine.    October,  1875.    August,  1894  ("Lowell's  Letters 

to  Poe"). 
The  Century  Magazine.    August,  1894  ("  Poe  in  the  South."     Selections 

from    his    correspondence.      Two  illustrations).      September,   1894 

("  Poe  in  Philadelphia  ").     October,  1894  ("  Poe  in  New  York  "). 
Prefaces  to  Editions  of  Poe's  Works. 


172  EDGAR  ALLAN  FOE. 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

January  19,  1809. 
October  7, 1849. 

Born  in  Boston,  of  parents  who  were  members  of  the  Federal  Street 
Theatre  company. 

Ancestors. 

Great-grandfather.     A  descendant  of  one  of  Cromwell's  officers. 
Grandfather,     A  patriot  of  the  Revolution  and  of  the  War  of 

1812. 
Father.     Educated  for  the  legal  profession  ;  adopted  the  stage, 

and  married  in  Boston  a  pleasing  English  actress,  Elizabeth 

Arnold. 

Early  Left  an  Orphan. 

Adopted  by  John  Allan,  a  tobacco  merchant  of  Richmond,  Va.  ; 

christened  Edgar  Allan. 
Home  of  luxury  and  every  advantage. 
At  six  years  of  age  the  boy  could  read,  sing,  and  dance. 
He  was  especially  fond  of  animals,  flowers,  and  books. 
Passionately  devoted  to  Mrs.  Allan. 

Taken  to  England  with  the  Allans.     1815. 

Five  years  in  the  school  at  Stoke  Newington,  near  London. 
Experiences  recorded  in  his   tale,    William   Wilson,   in   which 
both  the  boys  represent  Poe. 

Private  School  in  Richmond. 

One  Year  at  the  University  of  Virginia. 

(Founded    by    Jefferson.      For  view,   see    article  on   Poe,   in 

Duyckinck's  Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature.) 
Fair  student.     Contracted  gambling-debts. 
Removed,  and  put  into  Mr.  Allan's  counting-room. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  173 

Leaves  Richmond  to  seek  his  fortune. 

Intended  to  aid  the  Greeks  (like  Byron)  in  their  war  for  inde 
pendence  (Halleck's  poem,  "  Marco  Bozzaris,"  had  recently 
appeared. )  Known  to  have  appeared  in  St.  Petersburg,  and 
to  have  fallen  into  difficulty  there  over  a  passport. 

Publishes,  in  Boston,  Tamerlane  and  other  Poems. 

"By  a  Bostonian."    (Note,  later,  Poe's  antipathy  to  Boston  and 

its  people. ) 

Only  two  copies  of  this  edition  are  now  in  existence,  one  in  the 
British  Museum. 

Enlists  as  a  Private  in  the  U.  S.  Army,  and  attains  the  rank  of 
sergeant-inajor. 

Cadetship  at  West  Point. 

At  first  he  excelled  in  French  and  mathematics. 
Later  he  purposely  neglected  study  and  ignored  the  regulations. 
Consequent  expulsion. 

Banished  from  the  Home  of  the  Allans. 

"  He  forfeited  his  home-right  more  recklessly  than  Esau." 
(Compare  "  Uncle  Contarine's  "  experience  with  Oliver  Gold 
smith.  ) 

Journalistic  Life  in   Baltimore,  Kichmond,  Philadelphia,  and  New 

York. 

Kemarkably  conscientious  as  contributor  and  as  editor. 
Poe  did  good  pioneer  work  for  American  journalism. 
"  A  Pegasus  in  harness." 
Obtained  two  prizes  of  £'100  each.     A  Manuscript  Found  in  a 

Bottle.     The  Gold  Bug. 
(His  first  prize  story  secured  for  him  the  friendship  of  John 

P.  Kennedy.) 
Development  as  an  unsparing  critic. 

Marries  His  Child-Cousin,  Virginia  Clemm,  in  whose  family  he  had 

lived  for  several  years. 

His  wife  was  the  ideal  of  a  number  of  his  poems.  (See  note 
under  Poe's  writings.) 


174  EDGAR  ALLAN  POE. 

"I  can  wish  you  no  better  wish  than  that  you  may  derive  from 
your  marriage  as  substantial  happiness  as  I  have  derived 
from  mine."  — POE,  in  a  letter  to  J.  R.  Lowell. 

Mutual  and  lifelong  devotion  between  Poe  and  his  mother-in- 
law,  Mrs.  Clemm. 

Gives   anonymously  to  the  Public  "The  Murders  of  Rue  Morgue." 

The  idea  of  the  story  was  stolen  by  two  rival  French  periodicals ; 

a  consequent  lawsuit  revealed  the  true  author.     From  this 

time  on,  Poe's  works  commanded  an  admiring  public  in 

the  French  people. 

In  this,  "  Poe  may  be  said  to  have  originated  the  modern  detec 
tive  story." 

Pleasure  and  Success  in  the  Study  of  Cryptography. 

The  Gold  Buy  called  forth  a  multitude  of  letters  appealing  to 
Poe's  skill  in  this  direction,  all  of  which  he  laboriously 
worked  out. 

Publishes  a  Prediction  of  Dickens's  Story,  "  Barnaby  Rudge,"  after 

the  appearance  of  the  first  few  chapters. 

"  A  feat  that  filled  Dickens  with  amazement." 
"  Tales  of  the  Grotesque  and  Arabesque."     1840. 

Publication  of  "The  Raven."     1845. 
Immediate  popularity. 

"The  Adventures  of  Arthur  Gordon  Pym"  makes  Poe  known  in 
England. 

Removal  to  a  Cottage  at  Fordham,  N.  Y. 

Illness.     Intemperance  and  the  opium  habit.     Great  poverty. 
(A  friend's  public  appeal  resented  by  Poe.) 
"  Here  lived  the  soul  enchanted 

By  melody  of  song  ; 
Here  dwelt  the  spirit  haunted 

By  a  demoniac  throng  ; 
Here  sang  the  lips  elated  ; 
Here  grief  and  death  were  sated ; 
Here  loved,  and  here  unmated 
Was  he,  so  frail,  so  strong." 

Poe  at  Fordham.     By  J.  H.  BOXER. 


OUTLINE  OF  LIFE.  175 

See  Harper's  Magazine  for  September,  1872. 
The  Fordham  cottage  is  now  owned  by  the  New  York  Shake 
speare  Society,  and  is  always  open  to  visitors. 

Death  of  Mrs.  Poe,  from  the  rupture  of  a  blood-vessel  when  singing. 
(She  had  always  been  a  semi-invalid.) 
All  but  fatal  illness  on  the  part  of  her  husband. 
After  the  decease  of  his  wife,  Poe  seemed  to  find  death  less 
horrible  than  before. 

Friendship  with  Sarah  Helen  Whitman,  a  poetess  and  a  superior 

woman,  of  Providence,  R.  I. 
See  poem  "  To  Helen,"  which  was  inspired  by  the  poet's  first 

sight   of    her   when   among   the    roses    of    her  garden    by 

moonlight. 
After  Poe's  death,  Mrs.  Whitman  became  his  champion  in  a 

work  entitled,  Edyar  Allan  Poe  and  His  Critics. 

Death  from  Delirium  Tremens  in  a  Baltimore  hospital  on  the  night 
before  his  prospective  marriage  to  Mrs.  Shelton,  a  widow 
in  Richmond,  whom  he  had  loved  in  his  youth. 
His  last  icords.     "  Lord,  help  my  poor  soul  !" 

Grave  unmarked  until  1875,  when  the  school-teachers  of  Baltimore 
erected  a  monument  over  it. 

Temperament  and  Character. 

Sensitive,  morbid,  imaginative,  intellectually  proud,  passion 
ate;  imperious,  self-indulgent;  judgments  biased  largely 
by  his  feelings.  An  impressive  talker.  He  lacked  high 
motives. 

"  His  domestic  life  was  well-nigh  faultless." 

"  The  defect  in  Poe  was  in  character,  —  a  defect  which  will 
make  itself  felt  in  art  as  in  life." 

"  In  the  place  of  moral  feeling,  he  had  the  artistic  conscience." 
—  BEERS. 

"He  created  no  character  because  he  was  deficient  in  the 
human  element." 

"The  heart  somehow  seems  all  squeezed  out  by  the  mind."  — 
LOWELL. 


176  EDGAR   ALLAN  POE. 

Appearance. 

Slight  and  erect  figure ;  medium  height ;  well  proportioned ;  large 
forehead;  dark  and  curling  hair;  handsome,  intellectual 
face ;  winning  smile ;  hands  fair  and  delicate. 

Manners. 

Fascinating  and  polished. 

Voice. 

A  low,  rich  baritone;  responsive  to  his  friends;  highly  effective 
in  recitation,  as  he  thus  occasionally  used  it  when  lecturing. 
He  inherited  from  his  parents  declamatory  power. 

His  own  Summary  of  His  Life. 

"My  life  has  been  whim  —  impulse  —  passion  —  a  longing  for 
solitude  —  a  scorn  of  all  things  present,  in  an  earnest  desire 
for  the  future." 

Three  "  Problematic  Characters  "  in  American  Literature. 
Poe.     Hawthorne.     Emerson. 


APPELLATIONS.  177 


APPELLATIONS. 

A  POET  AMONG  POETASTERS. 

A    SUBTLE    ARTIST   IN   THE   KEALM   OF   THE   WEIRD  AND  THE 

FANTASTIC. 

AMERICA'S  UNIQUE  POET. 

A  CAREFUL  ARTIST  RATHER  THAN  AN  INSPIRED  POET. 
THE  IMP  OF  THE  PERVERSE.     (Borrowed  from  the  title  of  one 

of  his  tales.) 

THE  FORERUNNER  OF  OUR  CHIEF  EXPERTS  IN  FORM  AND  SOUND. 
THE  MOST  ISOLATED  AND   EXCEPTIONAL   OF   AMERICA'S   POETS 

AND  PIONEERS. 
A  DREAMER. 

A  GENIUS  TETHERED  TO  THE  HACKWORK  OF  THE  PRESS. 
OUR  STYGIAN  AMERICAN. 
THE  HAMLET  OF  AMERICA. 

POETICALLY  THE  MOST  GIFTED  OF  AMERICA'S  SONS. 
A  BRILLIANT  EXOTIC  AMONG  AMERICA'S  NATIVE  WILD  FLOWERS. 
A  POET  OF   ASSONANCE  AND  ALLITERATION,  OF  REFRAIN  AND 

EEPETEND.     ("  The  Jingle  Man."  —  Emerson.} 
A  DISCIPLE  OF  COLERIDGE. 
A  MASTER  IN  TOMBLAND  AND  GHOSTLAND. 
A  POET  OF  MYSTICISM,  MELANCHOLY,  MORBIDNESS. 
A  MELODIST. 

THE  POET  OF  A  SINGLE  MOOD. 
OUR  GREATEST  SOUTHERN  WRITER. 
AN  UNFORTUNATE  CHILD  OF  GENIUS. 
A  LYRIST  PURE  AND  SIMPLE. 
AN  ANALYST  OF  GREAT  POWER. 
THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  CRITIC  WHO  MADE  CRITICISM  AN  ART. 


178  EDGAR   ALLAN  POE. 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WRITINGS. 

"  His  works  are  more  remarkable  for  their  ability  tban  for 
their  contents." 

His  Favorite  Themes. 
Death. 

Prose. — Ligeia.     The  Premature  Burial.    A  Manuscript  found 

in  a  Bottle. 

Poetry.  —  The  City  in  the  Sea.     The  Sleeper.     Annabel  Lee. 
Lenore,  and  other  poems. 

Insanity. 

Prose.  — The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher. 

Poetry.  —  The  Haunted  Palace.     (A  poem  found  in  the  story 

above.) 
Pestilence. 

Prose.  —  The  Masque  of  the  Red  Death.    King  Pest. 
Conscience. 

Prose.  —  William  Wilson.     The  Tell-Tale  Heart.    The  Imp  of 

the  Perverse.    The  Black  Cat. 
Poetry.  —  The  Raven. 
Ratiocination. 

Prose.  — The  Gold  Bug.    The  Murders  of  the  Rue  Morgue.    The 

Mystery  of  Marie  Roget.     The  Purloined  Letter. 
"  Vagueness  was  the  hue  in  which  he  painted."  —  WOODBERBY. 

HIS   POEMS. 
Style. 

Remarkable  for  its  mechanism,  art,  and  finish. 

Number. 

About  forty. 

Nature. 

"  Though  his  poems  are  all  sombre  in  hue,  —  mere  cries  of  despair,  — 
there  is  a  haunting  beauty  in  their  melody  which  makes  them 
cling  in  the  memory,  even  against  the  will."  —  F.  L.  PATTEE. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WHITINGS.  179 

His  Theory  of  Poetry. 

"Aim  not  to  convey  an  idea,  but  to  make  an  impression." 

"  Poetry  is  the  rhythmical  creation  of  the  Beautiful." 

"  Narration  is  unsuited  to  poetry,  and  is  admissible  only  when  given 

in  the  dramatic  form." 
"I  hold  that  a  long  poem  does  not  exist.  .  .  .     The  phrase,  'a  long 

poem,'  is  simply  a  flat  contradiction  in  terms." 
Well  illustrated  in  Poe's  own  poetic  writings. 

"  Poetry  has  been  with  me  a  passion,  not  a  purpose." 
Causes  of  his  Artistic  Effects. 

Sonorousness.    Refrains.    Repetition  of  the  same  vowel  sound. 
New  expressions  of  the  same  thought.     Simple  measures. 
Brevity. 
"The  limitations  of  his  poems  serve  as  a  foil  for  their  peculiar 

merits." 
NOTE.  —  To  Poe  the  most  poetic  subject  possible  was  the  death  of  a 

beautiful  woman.     (Beauty  and  death  appealed  most  powerfully 

to  his  mind.) 
See  his  essays,  "The  Poetic  Principle,"  "The  Rationale  of  Verse," 

and  "  The  Philosophy  of  Composition." 
The  Raven. 

Published  at  first  anonymously. 

One  of  the  most  popular  lyric  poems  in  all  literature. 

"No  great  poem  ever  established  itself  so  immediately,  so  widely, 

and  so  imperishably  in  men's  minds." 
"The  Raven  became  in  some  sort  a  national  bird,  and  the  author 

the  most  notorious  American  of  the  hour."  — WOODBERRY. 
"As  grotesque  as  the  gargoyles  seen  by  moonlight  on  the  fa<;ade  of 

the  Notre  Dame."  —  STEDMAN. 

"  Poe's  raven  is  the  very  genius  of  the  Night's  Plutonian  Shore." 
Illustrated  edition  (Dore").    Published  by  Harper. 

"  There  comes  Poe  with  his  raven,  like  Barnaby  Rudge. 

Three-fifths  of  him  genius,  and  two-fifths  sheer  fudge." 

LOWELL. 

See  Ingram's  The  Raven,  with  Literary  and  Historical  Commentary. 
Its  Structure.    (Described  in  Poe's  "  Philosophy  of  Composition.") 

The  theme  should  be  both  beautiful  and  sad. 

The  length  should  be  about  one  hundred  lines. 

A  refrain,  of  a  single  word,  should  be  prominent. 
"Nevermore,"  the  most  suitable  and  effective. 

A  human  being  (a  lover)  and  a  bird  of  ill-omen. 


180  EDGAR   ALLAN  POE. 

Space  circumscribed  ("  like  a  frame  to  a  picture  ")  —  a  chamber. 
Chiaroscuro.    The  black  raven  and  the  "  pallid  bust  of  Pallas." 
Development  of  the  metaphorical,  the  raven  becoming  "em 
blematic  of  mournful  and  never-ending  Remembrance." 
"Its  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  Poe's  life,  —  a  vain  struggle  against  the 

inevitable." 

"It  inspired  Rossetti's  poem,  'The  Blessed  Damozel.'  " 
Ulalume.     Annabel  Lee.     To  One  in  Paradise. 

In  memory  of  his  wife. 
The  Bells. 

A  fine  illustration  of  onomatopoeia. 

Compare  it  in  this  quality  with  Dryden's  Alexander's  Feast. 
The  original  draft  consisted  of  but  eighteen  lines. 
The  Haunted  Palace. 

"  The  parable  of  a  ruined  mind." 


HIS  TALES. 
Characteristics. 

They  bear  striking  titles. 

Their  introductory  sentences  are  usually  apt,  and  command  attention 

at  once. 
They  are   all  short.     (Their  brevity  conduces  to  the  intensity  of 

impression  made.) 
They  contain  but  two  or  three  characters  (rarely  those  of  flesh  and 

blood),  and  only  one  action. 
"In  his  tales,  Poe  meant  not  to  tell  a  story,  but  to  produce  an 

effect." 

Ligeia. 

Suggested  by  a  dream  in  which  the  eyes  of  the  heroine  produced  the 

powerful  effect  described  in  the  story. 

Its  theme  is  the  conquest  of  death  through  the  power  of  will. 
The  tale  dearest  to  Poe. 
"  Upon  this  story  he  lavished  all  his  poetic,  inventive,  and  literary 

skill,  and  at  last  perfected  an  exquisitely  conceived  work,  and 

made  it,  within  its  own  laws,  as  faultless  as  humanity  can 

fashion."  — WOODBERRY. 
The  Gold  Bug. 

Poe's  most  successful  tale. 

Scene  laid  on  Sullivan's  Island,   near  Charleston,   S.C.,   and   the 

cipher  made  to  concern  Captain  Kidd's  buried  treasure. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  181 

The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher. 
Intensely  dramatic. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  depictions  of  insanity  to  be  found  in 
literature. 

William  Wilson. 
Autobiographic. 
Suggestive  of  Stevenson's  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde. 

Narrative  of  A.  Gordon  Pym. 

"  In  this  tale  all  the  horrors  of  the  deep  are  brought  in  and  huddled 
up  together." 

Eureka. 

"  A  speculative  analysis  of  the  universe." 
"  A  remarkably  ingenious  piece  of  fiction." 
"A  puzzle  to  the  critics." 

The  Masque  of  the  Red  Death. 

"  A  legend  fearful  in  its  beauty,  and  beautiful  in  its  fear." 
See  A.  E.  Sterner's  picture  in  The  Century,  August,  1894. 

Poe's  Best  Tales. 

The  Gold  Bug.     The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher.    Ligeia. 

As  Critic,  Poe  was  bold,  severe,  not  always  honest;    "prejudiced,  yet 

often  saying  a  true  thing." 
"The  sketches  in  his  Literati  are  waspish  and  unfair,  though  not 

without  touches  of  magnanimity." 
He  denounced  Longfellow  as  a  "  plagiarist,"  and  called  Hawthorne 

"  peculiar,  but  not  original." 
In  his  lifetime  he  was  more  widely  known  in  America  as  critic 

than  poet  or  romancer. 
In  this  department  of  writing  he  contrasts  painfully  with  our  master 

critic,  J.  R.  Lowell. 
Consult  Richardson's  American  Literature,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  404-109. 

Illustrated  Edition  of  Poe's  Complete  Works.    (Stedman  and  Woodberry.) 
Ten  volumes  ($15).     (Kiniball,  New  York.) 


182  EDGAR  ALLAN  FOE. 


MISCELLANEOUS    NOTES. 

"Though  his  writings  are  immoral,  they  cannot  be  called  in  any  sense 

immoral.    His  poetry  is  as  pure  in  its  unearthliness  as  Bryant's  in 

its  austerity." — H.  A.  BEERS. 

Poe's  writings  are  more  popular  in  France  than  in  any  other  country. 
"He  idealized  women,  and  secretly  worshipped  them." 
"Women  inspire  most  of  his  poems,  but  do  not  appear  as  characters 

in  his  romances." 
When  editor  of  The  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  he  brought  out  in 

it  Mitchell's  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor. 
Poe  had  no  sympathy  with  Emerson  and  the  other  Transcendentalists. 

He  belonged  to  the  New  York  school  of  writers,  —  Bryant,  Cooper, 

Irving,  Halleck,  and  Paulding,  —  rather  than  to  the  New  England. 
Poe  was  among  the  first  to  recognize  Hawthorne's  genius. 
He  wrote  and  re-wrote  his  sentences  very  carefully,  but  never  learned 

to  punctuate.    (In  the  latter  particular,  he  resembled  Shelley,  Byron, 

and  Scott.)    In  his  poems,  "  some  of  his  most  haunting  melodies  were 

the  result  of  the  most  exacting  effort." 
His  genius  was  closely  akin  to  insanity. 
He  lacked  humor  because  he  held  himself  so  aloof  from  his  fellowmen. 

His  few  literary  attempts  in  this  direction  were  not  successful;  "to 

him  the  humorous  was  merely  the  incongruous." 
In  patriotism,  also,  Poe  was  apparently  lacking ;  he  did  not  live  at  all 

in  touch  with  the  national  life. 

A  Dweller  among  Visions. 

"  Through  all  his  disappointments  Poe  lived  much  in  that  dream 
world  which  had  always  been  so  real  to  him,  and  much  of  his 
best  work  found  there  its  inspiration.  His  exquisite  story, 
Ligeia,  came  to  him  first  in  a  dream.  This  world,  so  unreal  to 
many,  was  to  Poe  as  real  as  his  actual  life.  .  .  .  No  other 
American  has  ever  brought  from  the  dream-world  such  beau 
tiful  creations,  which  charm  and  mystify  at  the  same  time,  and 
force  the  most  unimaginative  reader  to  believe  for  the  time  in 
the  existence  of  this  elusive  realm  of  faery." — MRS.  WRIGHT. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  183 

Hawthorne  and  Poe. 

Compared.  Both  are  highly  imaginative,  keenly  analytic,  isolated 
in  their  lives,  unique  in  their  genius. 

Contrasted.  Hawthorne's  imagination  busied  itself  with  the  de 
velopment  of  human  character;  Poe's  with  the  supernatural 
and  unearthly,  with  problems  of  the  intellect.  Hawthorne  is 
spiritually  analytic,  Poe  intellectually  so.  Hawthorne  is  mor 
ally  fascinating,  Poe  sensuously  so. 

"Poe  is  a  kind  of  Hawthorne  and  delirium  tremens."  —  LESLIK 
STEPHEN. 

Poe  His  Own  Worst  Enemy. 

"Poe  was  a  worse  enemy  to  himself  than  any  one  else  could  be. 
The  fine  enamel  of  his  genius  is  all  corroded  by  the  deadly  acid 
of  his  passions.  The  imperfections  of  his  temperament  have 
pierced  his  poetry  and  prose,  shattered  their  structure,  and 
blurred  their  beauty."  — GEORGE  PARSONS  LATHBOP. 

His  Character  and  His  Genius. 

"  Poe  was  the  victim  of  the  disproportion  between  his  character  and 
his  genius.  His  nature  was  passionate,  but  narrow  and  of  little 
depth ;  his  character  was  selfish,  and  undisciplined  by  his  will. 
On  the  other  hand,  his  intellect  was  of  exceptional  force  and 
capacity,  as  is  evidenced  by  his  power  of  close  and  cogent  rea 
soning,  his  retentive  and  ready  memory,  his  quick  (though  not 
intuitive)  insight  into  complicated  problems,  the  scope  —  wide, 
though  not  profound  —  of  his  attainments,  and  the  fickleness 
characteristic  of  an  active  mind  unrestrained  by  personal  weight. 
.  .  .  Had  Poe  possessed  a  small,  bright  intellect,  proportioned  to 
his  nature,  he  would  have  been  a  happy  and  successful  man,  but 
unknown.  Had  he  possessed  a  nature  commensurate  with  his 
intellect,  he  would  have  been  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  human 
race."  —  HAWTHORNE  AND  LEMMON. 

Tributes  to  His  Genius. 

Tennyson  considered  Poe  America's  greatest  genius.  (Poe  called 
Tennyson  "  the'greatest  poet  that  ever  lived.") 

"  Poe  ranks  next  to  Hawthorne  in  strength  of  personality."  — T.  W. 
HIGGINSON. 

A  memorial  bust  to  Poe  was  placed,  in  1883,  in  the  Poets'  Corner  of 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  by  the  actors  of 
that  city.  Edwin  Booth  made  the  dedicatory  address,  and  Wil 
liam  Winter's  fine  tributary  poem  was  read.  Its  inscription 


184  EDGAR  ALLAN  POE. 

reads,   "  Poe  was  great  in   his  genius;    unhappy  in   his  life; 
wretched  in  his  death ;  but  in  his  fame  he  is  immortal." 
"  Had  you  lived  a  generation  later,  honor,  wealth,  applause,  success 
in  Europe  and  at  home,  would  all  have  been  yours."  —  ANDREW 
LANG  in  his  Letters  to  Dead  Authors. 

"  Through  many  a  night  of  want  and  woe 

His  frenzied  spirit  wandered  wild, 
Till  kind  disaster  laid  him  low, 
And  love  reclaimed  its  wayward  child. 

Through  many  a  year  his  fame  has  grown  — 
Like  midnight,  vast ;  like  starlight,  sweet,  — 

Till  now  his  genius  fills  a  throne, 
And  homage  makes  his  realm  complete." 

WILLIAM  WINTER. 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONaFELLOW. 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

POET,  TRANSLATOR,  ROMANCER,  ESSAYIST. 


EXTRACTS. 

THEN  pealed  the  bells  more  loud  and  deep, 
"  God  is  not  dead  nor  does  he  sleep ! 
The  Wrong  shall  fail, 
The  Right  prevail, 
With  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men  ! " 

CHRISTMAS  BELLS. 

AND  the  night  shall  be  filled  with  music ; 

And  the  cares  that  infest  the  day 
Shall  fold  their  tents  like  the  Arabs, 

And  as  silently  steal  away. 

THE  DAY  is  DONE. 

LIKE  Dian's  kiss,  unasked,  unsought, 

Love  gives  itself,  but  is  not  bought. 

ENDYMION. 

No  one  is  so  accursed  by  fate, 
No  one  so  utterly  desolate, 

But  some  heart,  though  unknown, 

Responds  unto  his  own. 

IBID. 

THE  hooded  clouds,  like  friars, 
Tell  their  beads  in  drops  of  rain. 

MIDNIGHT  MASS. 
187 


188  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

IN  the  elder  days  of  Art, 

Builders  wrought  with  greatest  care 

Each  minute  and  unseen  part, 
For  the  gods  see  everywhere. 

THE  BUILDEBS. 

TRUST  no  Future,  howe'er  pleasant ! 

Let  the  dead  Past  bury  its  dead  ! 
Act,  —  act  in  the  living  Present ! 

Heart  within,  and  God  o'erhead  ! 

THE  PSALM  OF  LIFE. 

THERE  is  no  flock,  however  watched  and  tended, 

But  one  dead  lamb  is  there  ! 
There  is  no  fireside,  howsoe'er  defended, 

But  has  one  vacant  chair. 

RESIGNATION. 

THERE  is  a  Keaper,  whose  name  is  Death, 

And,  with  his  sickle  keen, 
He  reaps  the  bearded  grain  at  a  breath, 

And  the  flowers  that  grow  between. 

THE  REAPER  AND  THE  FLOWERS. 

THE  lovely  stars,  the  forget-me-nots  of  the  angels. 

EVANQELINE. 

WHEN  she  had  passed,  it  seemed  like  the  ceasing  of  ex 
quisite  music. 

IBID. 

As  unto  the  bow  the  cord  is, 

So  unto  the  man  is  woman ; 

Though  she  bends  him,  she  obeys  him, 

Though  she  draws  him,  yet  she  follows, 

Useless  each  without  the  other. 

HIAWATHA. 


EXTRACTS.  189 

THOU,  too,  sail  on,  0  Ship  of  State  ! 
Sail  on,  0  Union,  strong  and  great ! 
Humanity  with  all  its  fears, 
With  all  its  hopes  of  future  years, 
Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate  ! 

THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  SHIP. 

0  FEAR  not  in  a  world  like  this, 

And  thou  shalt  know  erelong,  — 
Know  how  sublime  a  thing  it  is 

To  suffer  and  be  strong. 

THE  LIGHT  OF  STARS. 

FOR  age  is  opportunity  no  less 
Than  youth  itself,  though  in  another  dress ; 
And,  as  the  evening  twilight  fades  away, 
The  sky  is  filled  with  stars,  invisible  by  day. 
MOKITURI  SALUTAMUS. 

WHEKE'ER  a  noble  deed  is  wrought, 
Whene'er  is  spoken  a  noble  thoiight, 

Our  hearts  in  glad  surprise 

To  higher  levels  rise. 

SAINT  FILOMENA. 

0  THOU  sculptor,  painter,  poet ! 

Take  this  lesson  to  thy  heart : 
That  is  best  which  lieth  nearest ; 

Shape  from  that  thy  work  of  art. 

GASPAR  BECERRA. 

HE  did  not  feel  the  driver's  whip, 

Nor  the  burning  heat  of  day  ; 
^or  Death  had  illumined  the  Land  of  Sleep, 


190  HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

And  his  lifeless  body  lay 
A  worn-out  fetter,  that  the  soul 
Had  broken  and  thrown  away. 

THE  SLAVE'S  DBEAM. 

THP:N  stay  at  home,  my  heart,  and  rest ; 
The  bird  is  safest  in  its  nest ; 
O'er  all  that  flutter  their  wings  and  fly 
A  hawk  is  hovering  in  the  sky  ; 
To  stay  at  home  is  best. 

SONG. 

THEN  fell  upon  the  house  a  sudden  gloom, 
A  shadow  on  those  features  fair  and  thin ; 

And  softly  from  that  hushed  and  darkened  room 
Two  angels  issued  where  but  one  went  in. 

THE  Two  ANGELS. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  LANDLADY'S  DAUGHTER. 

THE  next  stopping-place  was  the  little  tavern  of  the 
Star,  an  out-of-the-way  corner  in  the  town  of  Salzig.  It 
stands  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine ;  and  directly  in  front 
of  it,  sheer  from  the  water's  edge,  rise  the  mountains  of 
Liebenstein  and  Sternenfels,  each  with  its  ruined  castle. 
These  are  the  Brothers  of  the  old  tradition,  still  gazing  at 
each  other,  face  to  face  ;  and  beneath  them,  in  the  valley, 
stands  a  cloister,  —  meet  emblem  of  that  orphan  child  they 
both  so  passionately  loved. 

In  a  small  flat-bottomed  boat  did  the  landlady's  daughter 
row  Flemming  "over  the  Rhine-stream,  rapid  and  roaring 
wide."  She  was  a  beautiful  girl  of  sixteen,  with  black 
hair,  and  dark,  lovely  eyes,  and  a  face  that  had  a  story  to 
tell.  How  different  faces  are  in  this  particular  !  Some 


EXTRACTS.  191 

of  them  speak  not.  They  are  books  in  which  not  a  line 
is  written,  save  perhaps  a  date.  Others  are  great  Family 
Bibles,  with  the  Old  and  New  Testament  written  in  them. 
Others  are  Mother  Goose  and  nursery  tales  ;  others,  bad 
tragedies,  or  pickle-herring  farces  ;  and  others,  like  that 
of  the  landlady's  daughter  at  the  Star,  sweet  love-anthol 
ogies,  and  songs  of  the  affections.  It  was  on  that  account 
that  Flemming  said  to  her,  as  they  glided  out  into  the 
swift  stream,— 

"  My  dear  child  !  do  you  know  the  story  of  the  Lieben- 
steiii  ?  " 

"  The  story  of  the  Liebenstein,"  she  answered,  "  I  got 
by  heart  when  I  was  a  child." 

And  here  her  large,  dark,  passionate  eyes  looked  into 
Flemming's,  and  he  doubted  not  that  she  had  learned  the 
story  far  too  soon  and  far  too  well.  The  story  he  longed 
to  hear,  as  if  it  were  unknown  to  him ;  for  he  knew  that 
the  girl,  who  had  got  it  by  heart  when  a  child,  would  tell 
it  as  it  should  be  told.  So  he  begged  her  to  repeat  the 
story,  which  she  was  but  too  glad  to  do ;  for  she  loved  and 
believed  it,  as  if  it  had  all  been  written  in  the  Bible.  But, 
before  she  began,  she  rested  a  moment  on  her  oars,  and, 
taking  the  crucifix  which  hung  suspended  from  her  neck, 
kissed  it,  and  then  let  it  sink  down  into  her  bosom,  as  if 
it  were  an  anchor  she  was  letting  down  into  her  heart. 
Meanwhile  her  moist,  dark  eyes  were  turned  to  heaven. 
Perhaps  her  soul  was  walking  with  the  souls  of  Cunizza, 
and  Rahab,  and  Mary  Magdalen.  Or  perhaps  she  was 
thinking  of  that  nun,  of  whom  St.  Gregory  says  in  his 
Dialogues,  that,  having  greedily  eaten  a  lettuce  in  a  gar 
den  without  making  the  sign  of  the  cross,  she  found 
herself  soon  after  possessed  with  a  devil. 


192  HENRY   WADSWORTH   LONGFELLOW. 

The  probability,  however,  is  that  she  was  looking  at  the 
ruined  castles  only,  and  not  to  heaven,  for  she  soon  began 
her  story,  and  told  Flemming  how,  a  great,  great  many 
years  ago,  an  old  man  lived  in  Liebenstein  with  his  two 
sons ;  and  how  both  young  men  loved  the  Lady  Geraldine, 
an  orphan,  under  their  father's  care ;  and  how  the  elder 
brother  went  away  in  despair,  and  the  younger  was  be 
trothed  to  the  Lady  Geraldine ;  and  how  they  were  as 
happy  as  Aschenpiittel  and  the  Prince.  And  then  the 
holy  Saint  Bernard  came  and  carried  away  all  the  young 
men  to  war,  just  as  Napoleon  did  afterwards  ;  and  the 
young  lord  went  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  Lady  Geral 
dine  sat  in  her  tower  and  wept,  and  waited  for  her  lover's 
retiirn,  while  the  father  built  the  Sternenfels  for  them  to 
live  in  when  they  were  married.  And  when  it  was  finished, 
the  old  man  died ;  and  the  elder  brother  came  back  and 
lived  in  the  Liebenstein,  and  took  care  of  the  gentle  lady. 
Erelong  there  came  news  from  the  Holy  Land  that  the 
war  was  over ;  and  the  heart  of  the  gentle  lady  beat  with 
joy,  till  she  heard  that  her  faithless  lover  was  coming  back 
with  a  Greek  wife,  —  the  wicked  man  !  —  then  she  went  to 
a  convent  and  became  a  holy  nun.  So  the  young  Lord  of 
Sternenfels  came  home,  and  lived  in  his  castle  in  great 
splendor  with  the  Greek  woman,  who  was  a  wicked  woman, 
and  did  what  she  ought  not  to  do.  But  the  elder  brother 
was  angry  for  the  wrong  done  the  gentle  lady,  and  chal 
lenged  the  Lord  of  Sternenfels  to  single  combat.  And, 
while  they  were  fighting  with  their  great  swords  in  the 
valley  of  Bornhofen  behind  the  castle,  the  convent  bells 
began  to  ring,  and  the  Lady  Geraldine  came  forth  with  a 
train  of  nuns  all  dressed  in  white,  and  made  the  brothers 
friends  again,  and  told  them  she  was  the  bride  of  Heaven, 


EXTRACTS.  193 

and  happier  in  her  convent  than  she  could  have  been  in 
the  Liebenstein  or  the  Sternenf  els.  And  when  the  brothers 
returned  they  found  that  the  false  Greek  wife  had  gone 
away  with  another  knight.  So  they  lived  together  in 
peace,  and  were  never  married.  And  when  they  died  — 

"Lis'beth!  Lis'beth !  "  cried  a  sharp  voice  from  the 
shore,  "  Lis'beth  !  where  are  you  taking  the  gentleman  ?  " 

This  recalled  the  poor  girl  to  her  senses ;  and  she  saw 
how  fast  they  were  floating  down-stream.  For,  in  telling 
the  story,  she  had  forgotten  everything  else,  and  the  swift 
current  had  swept  them  down  to  the  tall  walnut-trees  of 
Kamp.  They  landed  in  front  of  the  Capuchin  Monastery. 
Lisbeth  led  the  way  through  the  little  village,  and,  turning 
to  the  right,  pointed  up  the  romantic,  lonely  valley  which 
leads  to  the  Liebenstein,  and  even  offered  to  go  up.  But 
Flemming  patted  her  cheek,  and  shook  his  head.  He 

went  up  the  valley  alone. 

HYPERION. 

MR.   CHURCHILL'S  DREAM. 

IN  the  night  Mr.  Churchill  had  a  singular  dream.  He 
thought  himself  in  school,  where  he  was  reading  Latin  to 
his  pupils.  Suddenly  all  the  genitive  cases  of  the  first 
declension  began  to  make  faces  at  him,  and  to  laugh  im 
moderately  ;  and,  when  he  tried  to  lay  hold  of  them,  they 
jumped  into  the  ablative,  and  the  circumflex  accent  as 
sumed  the  form  of  a  great  moustache.  Then  the  little 
village  schoolhouse  was  transformed  into  a  vast  and  end 
less  schoolhouse  of  the  world,  stretching  forward,  form 
after  form,  through  all  the  generations  of  coming  time  ; 
and  on  all  the  forms  sat  young  men  and  old,  reading  and 
transcribing  his  Romance  (which  now  in  his  dream  was 


194  HENRY    WADSWO11TU  LONGFELLOW. 

completed),  and  smiling  and  passing  it  onward  from  one  to 
another,  till  at  last  the  clock  in  the  corner  struck  twelve 
and  the  weights  ran  down  with  a  strange,  angry  whirr, 
and  the  school  broke  up ;  and  the  schoolmaster  awoke  to 
find  this  vision  of  fame  only  a  dream,  out  of  which  his 
alarm-clock  had  aroused  him  at  an  untimely  hour. 

KAVANAGII. 


REFERENCES.  195 


KEFEKENCES. 

\V.  S.  Kennedy's  Life  of  Longfellow.  (A  Longfellow  bibliography  is 
appended  to  this.) 

F.  H.  Underwood's  Life  of  Longfellow. 
E.  S.  Robertson's  Longfellow. 

Samuel  Longfellow's  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow  and  Final  Me 
morials  of  Longfellow. 

George  Lowell  Austin's  Life  of  Longfellow. 

Stedman's  Poets  of  America. 

Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  II.,  chap.  iii. 

Hazeltine's  Chats  about  Books. 

E.  E.  Hale's  Lights  of  Two  Centuries.  (Dr.  Hale  was  a  pupil  of  Long 
fellow  at  Harvard.) 

Hattie  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 

G.  "W.  Curtis's  Homes  of  American  Authors,  and  his  Literary  and  Social 

Essays. 

R.  H.  Stoddard's  Poets'  Homes. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  VI. 
Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 
William  Winter's  Old  Shrines  and  Ivy. 
Andrew  J.  Lang's  Letters  on  Literature. 
Poe's  Literati.     (Caustic.     Underwood  answers  Poe's  adverse  criticisms 

in  his  Life  of  Longfellow.) 
Griswold's  Poets  of  America. 
Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 
Whipple's  Essays. 
Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 
Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 
Text-books,  cyclopaedias,  and  histories  of  American  Literature. 
Chappel's  Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Americans.    Vol.  II.     (Sketch 

by  Duyckinck.) 

Samuel  Adams  Drake's  Old  Landmarks  of  Middlesex. 
Paige's  History  of  Cambridge. 
The  Atlantic  Monthly.     December,   1863  (G.   W.   Curtis's    review  of 

some  of  Longfellow's  poems).     June,  1882  (Article  by  O.  B.  Froth- 

ingham),    May,  188G  (Article  by  Samuel  Longfellow). 


196  HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Scribner's  Magazine.  September,  1878.  November,  1878  (This  contains 
"Wyatt  Eaton's  portrait  of  Longfellow). 

The  Century  Magazine.  October,  1883  (E.  C.  Stedman's  Essay).  April, 
1876  ("  Glimpses  of  Longfellow  in  Social  Life  "). 

The  North  American  Review.    April,  1867  (Howells  on  Longfellow). 

Harper's  Magazine.  January,  1876  ("  Cambridge  on  the  Charles." 
Illustrated).  June,  1882  (Article  by  G.  W.  Curtis). 

Riverside  Edition  of  Longfellow's  Works. 

The  Longfellow  Number  of  The  Literary  World.    Feb.  26,  1881. 

Munsey's  Magazine.  June,  1893  (A  short  illustrated  article  on  "  Long 
fellow's  Places  and  People"). 

Lippincott's  Magazine.  January,  1896  (R.  H.  Stoddard's  Reminiscences 
of  Longfellow). 

Biographical  sketch  in  the  Cambridge  Edition  of  Longfellow's  Poetical 
Works. 

NOTE.  —  For  classifications  of  many  of  Longfellow's  poems,  consult 
Miss  Hodgkins's  Guide  to  the  Study  of  Nineteenth  Century  Authors, 
and  W.  C.  Gannett's  Studies  in  Longfellow  (Riverside  Literature 
Series). 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  197 


OUTLINE   OE   HIS   LIFE. 

February  27,  1807. 
March  24, 1882. 

Paternal  Ancestry. 

William  Longfellow  came  to  Newbury,  Mass.,  in  the  middle  of 

the  seventeenth  century. 

The  homestead  is  only  about  five  miles  from  Whittier's  at 
Haverhill.  Visited  but  once  by  the  poet,  with  Charles 
Sumner  as  companion;  the  two  then  drove  to  Amesbury, 
and  made  a  call  on  Whittier. 

One  ancestor  lost  his  life  in  the  expedition  of  Sir  William  Phips 
against  Quebec. 

Father. 

A  Harvard  man,  classmate  of  Dr.  Channing  and  Judge  Hoar. 

Lawyer.     Member  of  Congress. 

"  A  cordial,  courteous,  high-spirited  gentleman  of  the  old  school." 

Mother. 

Zilpah  Wadsworth,  descendant  of  John  Alden. 

(Bryant  also  could  claim  the  same  Puritan  ancestor.) 

A  beautiful  woman ;  fond  of  music,  poetry,  nature,  and  social 

life. 
Her  father,  General  Wadsworth,  was  a  distinguished  officer  in 

the  Revolutionary  War. 

Birth  at  Portland,  Me.  ;  corner  of  Fore  and  Hancock  Streets. 

(Portland  was  also  the  birthplace  of  the  poet  N.  P.  Willis.) 

House  used  now  as  a  tenement-house;  for  view,  see  Kennedy's 

Longfellow  ;  and  Harper's  Magazine,  May,  1894,  p.  820. 
Second  Son  in  a  family  of  eight  children. 
Named  for  his  maternal  uncle,  a  lieutenant  in  the  American  navy, 

who,  when  nineteen  years  of  age,  perished  gallantly  at  Tripoli, 

preferring  death  to  slavery. 


198  HENEY    WADSWOBTII  LONGFELLOW. 

Home  of  His  Youth. 

Congress  Street,  Portland. 

The  mother's  ancestral  home. 

Presented  by  the  poet's  sister  to  the  Maine  Historical  Society  on 
condition  that  two  rooms  be  forever  kept  as  Longfellow 
Memorial  Rooms.  Many  relics  have  been  gathered  here. 

For  view,  see  Samuel  Longfellow's  Life  of  the  Poet,  and  Har 
per's  Magazine  for  May,  1894. 

For  a  description  of  the  Portland  of  Longfellow's  early  days, 
consult  Kennedy,  pp.  19-24. 

A  happy  childhood. 

Eead  his  poem,  "  My  Lost  Youth." 

First  Book  that  interested  Him. 
Irving' s  SketcJi-Book. 

Education. 

Bowdoin  College.     Class  of  1825.     (His  father  was  a  trustee  of 

Bowdoin. ) 

Classmate   of  Nathaniel   Hawthorne.     (See  note   under  Haw 
thorne's  classmates.) 
A  close  student.     Ranked  second  in  a  class  of  thirty-seven. 

Usually  studied  until  midnight,  and  rose  at  six  o'clock. 
Popular  with  both  professors  and  students. 
His  translation,  in  the  sophomore  year,  of  one  of  Horace's  odes 

secured  later  a  professor's  chair  for  him  in  his  Alma  Mater. 
Sent  poems,  from  time  to  time,  to  The  Literary  Gazette,  Boston, 

for  which  he  received  a  dollar  each. 

Subject  of  his  Commencement  oration,  "  Our  Native  Writers." 
Professor  Packard's  remembrance  of  him.    "  An  attractive  youth, 

with  auburn  locks,  clear,  fresh,  blooming  complexion,  and, 

as  might  be  expected,  of  well-bred  manners  and  bearing." 
(A  view  of  Bowdoin  College  is  shown  in  Duyckinck,  II.,  p.  193. 

See,  also,  note  under  Hawthorne's  education.) 
Studied  Law  a  short  time  in  his  father's  office. 
Appointment  at  Bowdoin  (the  first)  Professor  of  Modern  Languages, 

a  position  largely  created  for  him.     (At  the  age  of  nineteen.) 
Preliminary  Travel  of  four  years  in  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and 

Germany.     (A  month's  voyage-out  in  a  packet-ship.) 


OUTLINE   OF  HIS  LIFE.  199 

His  Outre-Mer,  a  literary  product. 

Taught  four  modern  languages,  and  prepared  his  own  text 
books  in  French,  Spanish,  and  Italian. 

"  Bte  wrote  his  text-books  at  an  age  when  most  poets  go  a-gypsy- 
ing." 

Five  years  of  teaching  here.     Salary,  a  thousand  dollars. 

Becomes  a  Contributor  to  The  North  American  Review. 
Marriage  to  Mary  Storer  Potter,  the  "  Being  Beauteous."     1831. 
Keeps  a  Scrap-book  of  notices  of  his  writings,  calling  it  "  Tuffs 
and  Counter-blasts." 

Called  to  Harvard,  as  Smith  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  and 
Belles-lettres.  (Succeeds  George  Ticknor,  the  historian  of 
Spanish  literature,  and  is  followed  later  by  James  Russell 
Lowell.) 

Second  Residence  Abroad,  for  study  of  the  Scandinavian  tongues 
and  further  acquaintance  with  Germany. 

Visits  Carlyle,  through  Emerson's  letter  of  introduction. 

Death  of  Wife,  at  Rotterdam.     1835. 

See    poem,    "Footsteps   of   Angels"    (written   many  years 
afterward),  and  allusions  in  the  first  part  of  Outre-Mer. 

Adopts  his  Life  Motto.     (Found  under  Miscellaneous  Notes.) 

("  An  early  sorrow  is  often  the  truest  benediction  of  the  poet.") 
—  WASHINGTON  IRVING. 

Continues  his  journey  to  the  region  of  the  Rhine. 

Meets  Bryant  at  Heidelberg,  whose  influence  proves  both  sooth 
ing  and  strengthening. 

Becomes  acquainted,  at  Interlachen,  with  Miss  Frances  Apple- 
ton  (travelling  with  her  family),  sister  of  Thomas  Gold 
Appleton,  the  Boston  litterateur,  who  inspires  the  writing  of 
his  romance,  Hyperion.  In  this,  Miss  Appleton  appears  as 
Mary  Ashburton. 

Return  to  America.     1837. 

Publishes  "  Hyperion  "  and  "  Voices  of  the  Night."     1839. 

Written  in  "Washington's  south-east  chamber "  of  the  famous 
Craigie  House. 


200  1IENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

"  The  public  plighted  its  faith  to  the  new  poet,  and  no  meddling 
critics  have  since  been  able  to  break  the  alliance." 

Life  in  Cambridge,  at  the  Craigie  House,  Brattle  Street. 
Arduous  College  Work.     Seventy  lectures  a  year. 
"  He  was   scrupulously  faithful  to  his  duties,  and  even  went 
through  the  exhausting  process  of  marking  French  exercises 
with  exemplary  patience." 

Always  courteous  to  his  pupils.  "  Let's  hear  Longfellow,  for  he 
always  treats  us  as  gentlemen!"  (Exclaimed  at  a  time  of 
uprising  among  the  students.) 

Member  of  a  Mutual  Admiration  Society.  "  The  Five  of  Clubs." 
Charles  Sumner,  Cornelius  C.  Felton,  George  S.  Hillard, 

Henry  Cleveland,  and  the  poet  Longfellow. 
All  gifted  men,  and  possessed  of  literary  tastes. 
Friendship  with  Sumner. 

The  two  were  distantly  connected  by  marriage. 

Sumner  was  a  lecturer  in  the  Harvard  Law  School  when 

Longfellow  came  to  Cambridge. 

When  near  Boston,  Sumner  spent  every  Sabbath  with  the  poet. 
Longfellow  followed  enthusiastically  all  of  the  orator's  pub 
lic  speeches. 

Wrote  two  poems  on  Sumner. 
His  poems  on  slavery  were  largely  due  to  Sumner's  urgency 

,  that  he  should  express  himself  on  the  subject. 
Occupies  the  professor's  chair  seventeen  years,  and  then  leads  a 

retired  life. 

Read  Lowell's  "Cambridge  Thirty  Years  Ago:"  Fireside  Travels. 
(For  an  illustrated  historical  sketch  of  Harvard's  college  build 
ings  and  Cambridge  as  a  university  town,  consult  Harpers 
Magazine  for  January,  1876. )  ^ 

Marriage  to  Frances  Appleton,  and  Purchase  of  the  Craigie  House. 

1843. 

(See  note  on  the  House  under  Miscellaneous  Notes.) 
"  His  home,  if  deeply  saddened  in  recent  years,  was  always  the 

House  Beautiful." 

I 

Children.     Five. 

Charles  Appleton.     Severely  wounded  in  the  Civil  War. 


OUTLINE  OF  II IS  LIFE.  201 

Ernest  Wadsworth.     Artist. 

Has  illustrated,  with  fifty-one  designs,  a  collection  'of 

twenty  of  his  fathers  poems. 

Three  daughters.     The  "blue-eyed  banditti"  of  his  "Chil 
dren's  Hour." 
Alice. 

Occupies  the  Craigie  House,  and  invites  to  it  annually 

a  number  of  working-girls  from  Boston. 
One  of  the  three  committee  women  of  Cambridge. 
Annie  Allegra,  Mrs.  Thorpe. 

Mr.  Thorpe's  sister  married  the  violinist,  Ole  Bull,  who 
appears  as  the  musician  in  the  poet's  Tales  of  a 
Wayside  Inn.  , 

Edith,  Mrs.  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr. 

Mr.  Dana  is  a  grandson  of  the  poet  Dana. 
Thomas  Buchanan  Read's  portrait  of  the  trio  hangs  in  the 

dining-room  of  the  Longfellow  house. 
Contributes  Frequent  Poems  to  The  Atlantic  Monthly. 
Tragic  Death  by  Fire  of  Mrs.  Longfellow.     July  9,  1861. 
Buried  on  the  anniversary  of  her  wedding-day. 
The  poet  was  too  severely  injured  in  trying  to  subdue  the  flames 

to  attend  the  funeral. 
No  direct  mention  of  his  loss  appeared  in  his  later  poetry,  but 

this  bears  a  sadder  tone. 

His  translation  of  Dante  became  the  poet's  solace.  (Recall 
Bryant's  turning  to  the  translation  of  The.  Iliad  upon  the 
death  of  his  wife.) 

Remark  to  a  friend  in  after  years.     "  I  was  too  happy,  I  might 

fancy  the  gods  envied  me  —  if  I  could  fancy  heathen  gods." 

See  posthumous  poem,  "  In  the  long,  sleepless  watches  of  the 

night  "  (The  Cross  of  Snow). 
Trip  to  England.     His  fourth  journey  to  Europe. 

LL.D.  from  Cambridge.     D.C.L.  from  Oxford. 
Elected  a  Member  of  the  Historical  and  Geographical  Society  of 
Brazil  ;    of  the  Scientific  Academy  of  St.  Petersburg  ;  of   the 
Royal    Academy   of   Spain  ;    of    the    Massachusetts   Historical 
Society  ;  and  of  the  Mexican  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 


202  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

\ 

Delivers  "  Morituri  Salutamus."     (See  note  under  Writings.) 

Celebration  of  Seventy-fifth  Birthday  throughout   the    schools  of 

the  country. 
Read  Whittier's  poem,  "  The  Poet  and  the  Children." 

Death  in  Cambridge,  and  Burial  at  Mt.  Auburn. 

A  palm  branch  and  a  passion-flower  were  laid  upon'the  casket. 
At  the  service,  verses  from  "Hiawatha  "  were  read,  beginning 
"He  is  dead,  the  sweet  musician!" 

Fields,  Holmes,  Emerson,  Lowell,  and  Whittier  were  among  the 
mourners  present. 

Public  Memorials  to  Longfellow. 
A  monument  at  Portland,  1888. 
Bust  in  Westminster  Abbey,  in  the  Poets'  Corner. 
(The  first  American  author  thus  distinguished.) 
See  view  in  Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography, 

and  in  Final  Memorials  of  Lonyfellow,  p.  408. 
The  Longfellow  Park  in  Cambridge. 

Land  opposite  the  Craigie  House,  secured  by  the  Longfellow 

Memorial  Association. 

Commands  the  poet's  favorite  view  of  the  Charles. 
No  statue  has  yet  been  erected  here  (1895).  • 

Character. 

Introspective,  exact,  methodical,  symmetrical,  impressionable, 
buoyant;    liberal  in  his  judgments;   "full  of  the  modesty 
that  generally  characterizes  great  genius;"    had   a  pro 
nounced  taste  for  linguistic  study  and  for  travel. 
Generous  to  fellow-poets.  —  "  Where  others  were  cold,  or  satiri 
cal,  or  contemptuous,  he  was  kind  and  cordial,  and  full  of 
cheer." 
Fond  of  children,  and  especially  kind  to  them. 

"  Liked  little  girls  best,"  he  told  Lowell,  adding  — 
"  What  are  little  girls  made  of  ? 
Sugar  arid  spice 
And  all  things  nice,  — 
That's  what  little  girls  are  made  of." 


OUTLINE   OF  IIIS  LIFE.  203 

"  Pure,  kindly,  and  courteous,  simple  yet  scholarly,  he  was  never 
otherwise  than  a  gentleman."  —  WHITTIER. 

Appearance,  Voice,  and  Manner. 

"His  natural  dignity  and  grace,  and  the  beautiful  refinement  of 
countenance,  together  with  his  perfect  taste  in  dress,  and 
the  exquisite  simplicity  of  his  manners,  made  him  the 
absolute  ideal  of  what  a  poet  should  be.  His  voice,  too, 
was  soft,  sweet,  and  musical;  and,  like  his  face,  it  had  the 
innate  charm  of  tranquillity.  His  eyes  were  bluish-gray, 
very  bright  and  brave,  changeable  under  the  influence  of 
emotion  (as  afterward  I  saw),  but  mostly  calm,  grave,  at 
tentive,  and  gentle.  The  habitual  expression  of  his  face 
was  not  that  of  sadness  ;  and  yet  it  was  pensive.  He  had 
conquered  his  own  sorrrows  thus  far,  but  '  the  sorrows 
of  others  threw  their  shadows  over  him.'"  —WILLIAM 
WINTER. 

"  His  face  was  the  mirror  of  his  harmonious  and  lovely  mind." 
"  I  do  not  think  I  ever  saw  a  finer  human  face."  — CHARLES 

KlNGSLEY. 

"The   charm  of  a  well-bred  manner  asserts  itself  over  every 

other  personal  attribute." 
"His  gentle  tact  and  exquisite  courtesy  remind  one  of  that  fine 

compliment  paid  to  Villemand,  —  which  is  a  fine  definition 

of  politeness,  —  '  when  he  spoke  to  a  lady  one  would  think 

he  had  offered  her  a  bouquet.'  " 

Autobiographic  Glimpses. 

Outre-Mer.     Hyperion. 

The  Village  Blacksmith.  The  Bridge.  To  the  Kiver  Charles. 
Footsteps  of  Angels.  In  the  Long,  Sleepless  Watches  of 
the  Night.  The  Two  Angels.  (See  note  on  this  poem 
under  the  death  of  Maria  White  Lowell.)  The  Children's 
Hour.  Morituri  Salutamus.  From  My  Arm-chair.  Old 
St.  David's  at  Radnor.  Keramos.  The  Rope-walk.  (The 
last  two  poems  were  evoked  by  the  pottery  and  the  rope- 
walk  in  Portland,  Me.,  familiar  to  the  poet's  boyhood.) 
L'Envoi  (The  Poet  and  His  Songs).  My  Books.  Weari 
ness. 


204  HENRY    WADSWORTll  LONGELLOW. 


APPELLATIONS. 

A  POET  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS. 

OUR  NEW  WORLD  ACADEMIC  SINGER. 

THE  AMERICAN  POET  LAUREATE. 

THE  MOST  SCHOLARLY  OF  AMERICAN  POETS. 

THE  CLERKLY  SINGER. 

A  CRAFTSMAN  OF  UNERRING  TASTE. 

OUR  PILGRIM  POET. 

THE  POET  OF  THE  SEA. 

THE  ST.  JOHN  OF  OUR  AMERICAN  APOSTLES  OF  SONG. 

THE  LEAST  NATIONAL  OF  OUR  POETS. 

A  UNIVERSAL  POET. 

A  PAINSTAKING  LITERARY  ARTIST. 

AN  ARTIST  OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL. 

OUR  BEST  BELOVED  POET. 

SWAN  OF  THE  CHARLES. 

OUR  AMERICAN  MINNESINGER. 

THE  CHILDREN'S  POET. 

A  GOOD  BORROAVER. 

A  POET  OF  GRACE  AND  SENTIMENT. 

A  BORN  ROMANTICIST. 

A  METRICAL  EXPERT. 

A  VERY  BENVENUTO  OF  GRACE  AND  SKILL. 

A  POET  OF  THE  NICHE  AND  ALCOVE. 

THE  CATHOLIC  SUSTGER  OF  SYMPATHY  AND  OF  ART. 

OUR  CHIEF  REPRESENTATIVE  OF  CONTINENTAL  CULTURE. 

AN  IMPARTIAL  JUDGE  OF  HIMSELF  AND  OF  HIS  WRITINGS. 

OUR  EARLIEST  MAKER  OF  EXQUISITE  VERSE. 

THE  POET  OF  PEACE  AND  REPOSE. 

A  TELLER  OF  BEWITCHING  TALES. 

A  SWALLOW  THAT  HAS  BUILT  UNDER  THE  ROOF  OF  LEGEND. 

FORTUNE'S  FAVORITE. 


A  P  PEL  LA  TIONS.  205 

THE  MAN  OF  THE  MILLION. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  GENTLEMAN. 

LEADER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CHOIR. 

OUR  BENIGNANT  POET. 

THE  MOST  POPULAR  OF  UNIVERSITY  POETS. 

A  LOVABLE  MAN  AND  ARTIST. 

A  DEVOTEE  TO  ONE  CALLING. 

THE  LAUREATE  OF  THE  COMMON  HUMAN  HEART. 


206     HENRY  WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW, 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WETTINGS. 

PKOSE. 

Travel.     Outre-Mer. 
Fiction.    Hyperion  and  Kavanagh. 
Criticism.    Poets  and  Poetry  of  Europe. 
Essays.    Driftwood.     (Collected  from  his  contributions  to  The  North 

American  Review ;  includes  his  favorable  review  of  Hawthorne's 

first  book.) 


Outre-Mer. 

"A  young  poet's  sketch-book." 

Written  before  European  travel  was  generally  known  to  Americans. 

Copyright  sold  to  Harper  Brothers  for  five  hundred  dollars. 

In  the  first  twenty  years  but  seventy-five  hundred  copies  were  sold. 

"All  the  world  was  Arcady,  —  a  land  of  beauty  and  romance."  — 
STEDMAN. 

."The  work  is  picturesque,  antiquarian;  golden  and  mellow  as  the 
shield  of  its  Lion  d'Or,  full  of  quiet  causerie  about  mediaeval 
legends,  trouveres,  and  old  chansons."  —  KENNEDY. 

Hyperion ;  a  Romance. 

"  The  work  of  an  idyllist."     "  An  agreeable  love-tale." 

"  The  companion  of  all  romantic  pilgrims  to  the  Rhine." 

Superior  to  its  successor,  Kavanagh,  in  power  and  in  style. 

Partly  written  in  the  picturesque  ruined  tower  of  Unspunnen,  in  the 
beautiful  valley  of  the  Lauterbrunnen. 

Somewhat  autobiographical  in  nature.  (Paul  Flemming,  "  what  I 
thought  I  might  have  been.") 

Contains  appreciative  criticisms  of  German  authors,  translations 
from  gems  of  German  literature,  descriptions  of  nature. 

"  Hyperion  did  great  service  in  its  day,  and  certainly  shared  with 
Carlyle's  essays  the  merit  of  directing  the  attention  of  English- 
speaking  people  to  the  wealth  of  German  literature." 

"No  traveller  can  fully  enjoy  Quebec  without  Howells's  Wedding 
Journey,  or  Heidelberg  without  Hyperion." 


NOTES    ON  HIS    WHITINGS.  207 

Read  Curtis's  description  of  the  romance  in  Literary  and  Social 

Essays,  pp.  190,  191. 
Key-note  of  the  Book.  —  "The  setting  of  a  great  hope  is  like  the 

setting  of  the  sun.  .  .  .    Then  stars  arise,  arid  the  night  is  holy." 

Kavanagh,  a  Tale. 

Written  in  Pittsfield,  the  home  of  Mrs.  Longfellow's  mother. 

The  poet's  "  brief  and  nearest  approach  to  a  novel." 

"  An  exact  daguerreotype  of  New  England  life." 

Its  Lesson.     Purpose  should  crystallize  into  action. 

"  We  are  so  charmed  with  elegance  in  an  American  book  that  we 

could  forgive  more  vices  than  are  possible  to  you."  —  EMERSON, 

to  the  author  (in  1849). 

POETRY. 

Voices  of  the  Night. 

The  volume  that  established  his  name  as  a  poet. 
When  Longfellow  was  once  driving  in  England,  a  hod-carrier  came 
up  to  the  carriage,  and  asked  if  he  might  take  the  hand  of  the 
man  who  had  written  Voices  of  the  Night. 
Its  most  popular  poem  is  — 

The  Psalm  of  Life. 

"  What  the  heart  of  the  young  man  said  to  the  Psalmist." 

Written  three  years  after  the  death  of  the  poet's  first  wife. 

Never  paid  for  by  the  magazine  that  published  it. 

Contrast  with  the  fact  that,  in  later  years,  an  English  firm  paid 
£1,000  for  the  privilege  of  publishing  the  advance  proofs  of 
one  of  Longfellow's  works,  "  New  England  Tragedies." 

This  poem,  during  the  siege  of  Paris,  saved  a  Frenchman  from  com 
mitting  suicide. 

Translated  into  many  languages,  including  Chinese  and  Marathi. 
The  Chinese  translator  had  a  fan  made  with  his  translation  on 
it,  and  sent  it  to  Longfellow.  An  interesting  retranslation  of 
this  version  into  English  is  given  in  Kennedy's  Life,  p.  64. 

"The  very  heart-beat  of  the  American  conscience." — G.W.  CURTIS. 

Compare  this  poem  with  Whittier's  "  My  Psalm." 

Evangeline.     1&47. 

"The  flower  of  American  idyls." 

Longfellow's  representative  poem,  and  his  favorite  among  his  own 

writings. 
Persons  have  been  known  to  study  the  English  language  in  order  to 

be  able  to  read  this  poem  in  the  original. 


208  HENRY    WADSWORTII  LONGFELLOW. 

Story  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  from  Nova  Scotia  by  order 
of  George  III.,  1755.  (An  historical  introduction  is  prefixed  to 
Houghton  &  Mifflin's  annotated  version  of  the  idyl.) 
Material.  Furnished  by  Hawthorne  and  his  friend,  Rev.  H.  L. 
Conolly.  (Consult  Fields's  Yesterdays  with  Authors,  pp.  64,  65 ; 
Shepard'sPen  Pictures,  pp.  129-132;  and  Kennedy's  Longfellow, 
pp.  73,  74.)  Whittier  intended  to  write  a  poem  on  this  theme, 
until  he  learned  that  Hawthorne  and  Longfellow  were  both 
considering  it. 

'     Hawthorne  took  great  pleasure  in  the  success  of  the  poem. 
Its  Metre.    Rhymeless  dactylic  hexameter.      (Consult  the  Analysis 

of  Versification.) 

"The  velvety  verse  that  Evangeline  trod."  —  HOLMES. 
A  bold  innovation  in  English  versification. 
Employed  afterward  by  Arthur  Hugh  Clough,  Matthew  Arnold, 

Charles  Kingsley,  and  William  D.  Howells. 
Lowell,  Higginson,  and  Stoddard  approve  its  use   in  English 

poetry. 
"It  is  easy  for  you  to  read  Evangeline  because  it  was  so  hard 

for  me  to  write  it." 

On  its  fitness,  consult  Stedman's  Poets  of  America,  pp.  195-200; 
Richardson,  II.,  pp.  73-78,  Parsons's  English   Versification, 
chap,  xii.,  and  Lowell's  lines  in  the  Fable. 
Other  Longfellow  poems  in  this  measure. 
The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish.      Elizabeth,  the  Theo 
logian's  Tale.     To  the  Driving  Cloud.     The  Children  of 
the  Lord's  Supper. 
Comments  on  the  Poem. 

'That  rare,  tender,  virgin-like  pastoral,  Evangeline. 
That's  not  ancient  nor  modern,  its  place  is  apart, 
"Where  time  has  no  sway,  in  the  realm  of  pure  Art ; 
Tis  a  shrine  of  retreat  from  Earth's  hubbub  and  strife, 
As  quiet  and  chaste  as  the  author's  own  life." 

LOWELL. 

"  I  read  it  as  I  should  have  listened  to  some  exquisite  sym 
phony."  —  HOLMES. 

"  The  characters  and  the  scenes  are  of  the  Western  world ;  but 
the  love  and  pathos,  like  all  great  works  of  the  sort,  belong 
to  universal  humanity."  — RICHARDSON. 

Longfellow  was  never  in  Nova  Scotia.  (Scott  had  never  seen 
Melrose  by  moonlight  when  he  wrote  his  well-known  lines.) 


NOTES   ON   HIS    WRITINGS.  209 

Whittier's  essay  on  Evangeline  is  found  in  Vol.  II.  of  his  prose 

works. 
Compare  the  poem  in  matter  and  in  form  with  Goethe's  Hermann 

and  Dorothea. 
Thomas  Faed's  picture  of  Evangeline.    Munsey's  Magazine,  June, 

1893. 
Boughton's  Evangeline.     Cassell's  Some  Modern  Artists  and  their 

Works. 
(Emerson's  first  collection  of  poems  appeared  the  same  year  as 

"  Evangeline.") 

/     Hiawatha;  an  Indian  Edda.     1855. 

America's  national  epic  poem.     (Compare  the  choice  of  theme  with 
Tennyson's  selection  of  the  Arthur  legends.) 

"  A  Civilizer  and  Savior  myth." 

"Like  Arthur,  Hiawatha  seeks  to  redeem  his  kingdom  from  sav 
agery,  and  to  teach  the  blessing  of  peace." 

First  successful  treatment  of  the  Indian  legends. 

(Goldsmith,    Campbell,   and    Southey    had    attempted    Indian 
poems.) 

"Destined  to  give  to  coining  generations  their  idea  of  the  race  of 
red  men." 

Ten  thousand  copies  sold  within  four  weeks  of  publication. 

Won  immediate  European  fame. 

Translated  into  nearly  all  of  the  modern  languages  and  into  Latin. 

"The  story  of  the  reception  of  the  poem  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of 
American  literature." 

"  To  be  ranked  with  such  productions  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  epic  of 
Beowulf  and  the  old  French  song  of  Roland." 

"  These  cantos  remind  us  that  poetry  is  the  natural  speech  of  primi 
tive  races." 

"The  very  names  are  jewels  which  the  most  fastidious  muse  might 
be  proud  to  wear.''  —  HOLMES. 

"  The  poet's  most  genuine  addition  to  our  native  literature." 

Longfellow  never  explored  the  Hiawatha  region  (southern  shore  of 
Lake  Superior). 

Its  Metre.    Unrhymed  trochaic  tetrameter.     (Consult  the  Analysis 

of  Versification.) 

Unusual.    Adapted  to  the  theme. 

The  same  as  that  used  in  Kalevala,  the  national  epic  of  the 
Finns. 


210  HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

"A  forest-poem;  it  is  fragrant  with  the  woods,  fresh  with  the  sky 

and  waters  of  the  breezy  north." 
"  In  Hiawatha  the   reader  sees  not  only  the  representative  of  a 

westward-moving  people,  hut  also  an  allegorical  picture  of  one's 

own  progress  onward."  — RICHARDSON. 
Sources  of  the  Poem.     Schoolcraft's  Hiawatha  Legends. 
Selections.    The  Peace-pipe,  I.     Hiawatha's  Childhood,  III.     His 

Sailing,  VII.    His  Wooing,  X.     His  Departure,  XXII. 
See    The  North  American   Review   for  January,   1856  (Article  by 

E.  E.  Hale). 
Other  Indian  Poems. 

The  Burial  of  the  Minnesink.     To  the  Driving  Cloud. 
The  Revenge  of  Rain-in-the-Face. 

The  attack  upon  General  Custer  and  his  party. 

This  Sioux  chief,  Rain-in-the-Face,  a  fine  specimen  of  the  red 
man,  was  exhibited  in  Chicago  at  the  World's  Columbian 
Exposition,  1893. 
Compare  with  Whittier's  Indian  poems. 

The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish.     1858. 

"The  Plymouth  Idyl." 

Twenty-five  thousand  copies  sold  within  a  month  of  publication. 

Bits  of  "frolicsome  humor"  throughout  the  poem. 

George  Boughton's  picture,  Puritans  going  to  Church,  is  shown  in 
Munsey's  Magazine,  June,  1893;  his  Priscilla,  in  The  New  Eng 
land  Magazine,  September,  1889;  his  Rose  Standish,  in  Cassell's 
Some  Modern  Artists. 

"  The  bucolic  wedding-scene  at  the  close  is  a  fine  subject  for  the 
pastoral  canvas." 

Illustrated  articles  on  the  Pilgrims,  Scrooby,  Leyden,  Plymouth, 
may  be  found  in  The  New  England  Magazine  for  September, 
1893. 

Excelsior.     ("  Higher. ") 

Written  at  one  sitting,  on  the  back  of  a  letter  from  Charles  Sumner. 

The  manuscript  is  kept  in  the  Art  Room  of  Harvard's  Library. 
Holmes's  preference  among  Longfellow's  poems. 
Has  been  parodied   more,  probably,  than  any  other  poem  in  the 

language. 
Longfellow's  Explanation  of  the  Poem. 

"  My  intention  was  to  display  in  a  series  of  pictures  the  life  of 
a  man  of  genius.  .  .  .  He  passes  through  the  Alpine  vil 
lage,  —  through  the  rough,  cold  paths  of  the  world,  —where 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WHITINGS.  211 

the  peasants  cannot  understand  him,  and  where  his  watch 
word  is  '  an  unknown  tongue.'  He  disregards  the  happiness 
of  domestic  peace,  and  sees  the  glaciers,  —  his  fate,  —  before 
him.  .  .  .  The  monks  of  St.  Bernard  are  the  representa 
tives  of  religious  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  with  their  oft- 
repeated  prayer  mingles  the  sound  of  his  voice,  telling  them 
that  there  is  something  higher  than  forms  or  ceremonies. 
Filled  with  these  aspirations,  he  perishes  without  having 
reached  the  perfection  he  longed  for ;  and  the  voice  heard 
in  the  air  is  the  promise  of  immortality  and  progress  ever 
upward." 

The  Skeleton  in  Armor. 

Skeleton  exhumed  at  Fall  River,  Mass. ;  by  poetic  license  Long 
fellow  connects  it  with  the  famous  Round  Tower  at  Newport. 
(The  skeleton  was  destroyed  soon  after  its  discovery,  before  it 
was  pronounced  Scandinavian  or  Indian.) 
"  Full  of  the  true  Viking  dash  and  fire." 

The  Wreck  of  the  Hesperus. 

Norman's  Woe,  a  reef  off  the  coast  of  Gloucester,  Mass. 

Origin  of  the  Poem.  — An  issue  of  The  Boston  Advertiser  in  Decem 
ber,  1839,  reported  a  wrecked  vessel  off  this  reef  with  a  woman's 
form  lashed  to  the  mast.  About  a  fortnight  later,  after  a 
violent  storm,  Longfellow  rose  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  and 
wrote  the  poem  in  less  than  an  hour. 

This  ballad  has  been  set  to  music. 

The  writer  received  twenty-five  dollars  for  it. 

\/    The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs. 

The  original  clock  is  now  in  the  home  of  Mr.  Thomas  Appleton,  No. 
10  Commonwealth  Avenue,  Boston. 

\T    Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn. 

Longfellow's  longest  work. 

The  poems  appeared  from  time  to  time  during  a  period  of  ten  years. 

Three  Series.    18G2.     1872.    1873. 

Introduction.    "  A  splendid  piece  of  painting."  —  WHITTIER. 

Plan.  Similar  to  that  of  Boccaccio's  Decameron,  imd  Chaucer's 
Canterbury  Tales.  "A  series  of  short  poems,  mostly  gathered 
from  older  literatures,  translated  into  Longfellow's  varying  and 
crystalline  verse,  and  linked  together  by  a  running  commentary 
of  the  poet's  own."  — STEDMAN. 


212  HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

V         One  only,  "  The  Birds  of  Killingworth,"  is  wholly  original  with  the 

writer. 

Narrators.    Seven.     "  A  cluster  like  the  Pleiades." 
The  Poet.     T.  \V.  Parsons,  translator  of  Dante. 
The  Sicilian.     Luigi  Monti,  Ur.  Parsons's  hrother-in-law. 
The  Musician.    Ole  Bull. 

The  Student.    Dr.  Henry  Wales,  a  friend  of  Harvard  College. 
The  Theologian.     Professor  Daniel  Treadwell  of  Harvard. 
The  Spanish  Jew.     Israel  Edrehi,  a  Boston  dealer  in  Eastern 

goods. 

The  Landlord.     Squire  Lyman  Howe. 
For  an  illustrated  article  on  "  The  Landlord,"  consult  The  New 

England  Magazine  for  May,  1891. 
Parsons,  Monti,  and  Treadwell  used  to  pass  the  summer  season 

together  at  the  Sudbury  Inn.    Dr.  Parsons  has  written  verses 

on  "  The  Old  House  at  Sudbury." 
King  Robert  of  Sicily. 

Translated    into   Portuguese  by  the  Emperor  of  Brazil,  Dom 

Pedro  II.,  and  a  manuscript  copy  sent  by  the  translator  to 

the  poet. 

Four  Colonial  Tales. 

In  the  series  above. 
V        Paul  Revere' s  Ride. 

"The  North   Church."     Christ  Church,  Salem  Street,  Boston. 

A  brick  church,  still  standing  ;   original  tower  was  blown 

down  in  1804,  but  the  new  one  reproduced  it.     (Its  chime  of 

eight  bells,  brought  from  England,  is  the  oldest  in  America.) 

Compare  with  other  rides  famous  in  literature. 

Browning's    "How  they    Brought   the    Good    News   from 
Ghent  to  Aix,"  Cowper's  "  John  Gilpin,"  Read's  "  Sher 
idan's  Ride,"  Adelaide  Procter's  "Legend  of  Bregenz," 
Whittier's  "  Skipper  Ireson's  Ride." 
Elizabeth. 

Compare  the  heroine  with  Longfellow's  other  Puritan  maiden, 

Priscilla. 
Furnished  the  title  for  Beatrice  Harraden's  popular  story,  Ships 

that  Pass  in  the  Night.    Canto  iv.,  first  verse. 
Lady  Wentioorth. 

Place  the  thought  of  the  poem  in  juxtaposition  with  that  of 

Whittier's  "Maud  Muller"  and  of  his  "Mabel  Martin." 
The  Rhyme  of  Sir  Christopher. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  213 

NOTE. —  The  Inn.  The  Red  Horse  Inn  at  Sudbury,  Mass.,  twenty- 
three  miles  from  Boston,  on  the  old  road  to  "Worcester.  More 
than  two  hundred  years  old.  Built  by  the  Howe  family,  — 
"The  Howe  Tavern." 

The  room  once  occupied  by  Major  Molineux  is  shown. 
For  view,  see  frontispiece  of  The  New  England  Magazine  for 
November,  1887  ;  Lee  and  Shepard's  Our  Colonial  Homes ; 
Kennedy's  Life,  p.  93. 
Described  in  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 
(Another  famous  Red  Horse  Inn.    At  Stratford,  England.) 
Morituri  Salutamis. 

"  The  title  a  stroke  of  genius." 

"Written  for  the  jubilee  reunion  of  Bowdoin's  Class  of  1825.  Eleven 
members  present,  and  one  instructor,  Professor  Packard,  alluded 
to  in  the  poem. 

"  One  of  the  grandest  hymns  to  age  ever  written." 
"  Never  did  poet  more  nobly  say  ave  atque  vale  than  did  Longfellow 

in  this  poem."  —  RICHARDSON. 

"How  good  Longfellow's  poem  is  !     A  little  sad,  but  full  of  'sweet 
ness  and  light.'  "  —  WHITTIER. 
Contains  a  number  of  classic  allusions,  and  an  entire  tale  from  the 

Gesta  Romanorum. 
Metre.    Rhymed  iambic  pentameter. 
Recall  Ge'rome's  painting  of  the  Roman  Arena. 
Sandalphon. 

The  author  received  for  this  poem  a  year's  subscription  to  the  paper 

that  published  it. 
My  Lost  Youth. 

"The  utterance  of  a  man  who  in  middle  ago  looked  into  his  own 

heart  to  write,  and  found  it  warm  and  true." 
A  fac-simile  of  this  poem,  with  illustrations,  is  printed  in  The  New 

England  Magazine  for  July,  1890. 
The  Sermon  of  St.  Francis. 

Henry  Stacy  Marks's  picture,  St.  Francis  Preaching  to  the  Birds, 

is  seen  in  Cassell's  Some  Modern  Artists. 
"Panoramic"  Poems. 

The  Building  of  the  Ship. 

Note  its  literal  and  its  symbolic  interpretation. 
(Compare  with  Schiller's  "  Song  of  the  Bell "  and  his  "  Walk.") 
Observe    the    expressiveness    of    the    varying  length  of  verse 
throughout  the  poem. 


214  HENRY    WADSWORTII  LONGFELLOW. 

In  1850  Mrs.  Keinble  gave  in  Boston  a  memorable  public  read 
ing  of  it. 
"This  poem  was  never  read  during  the  struggle  of  the  Civil  War 

without  raising  the  audience  to  a  passion  of  enthusiasm." 
President  Lincoln  was  deeply  touched  upon  hearing  it  read  for 
the  first  time,  and  remarked,  "  It  is  a  wonderful  gift  to  be 
able  to  stir  men  like  that." 
The  Hanging  of  the  Crane.    A  domestic  idyl. 

Called  forth  by  a  visit  of  the  poet  to  Thomas  B.  Aldrich  and 
his  newly  married  wife  in  their  home  on  Pinckney  Street, 
Boston. 
Once  presented  in  tableaux  on  the  stage  of  the  Fifth  Avenue 

Theatre,  New  York. 

The  New  York  Ledger  paid  four  thousand  dollars  for  the  poem, 
right  to  its  publication  in  book-form  being  exclusive  of  this. 
Ktramos.     ("  Potter's  clay.") 

Translated  into  his  native  language  by  a  member  of  the  Japa 
nese  legation. 

«  An  annotated  version  of  it  is  given  in  Swinton's  Studies  in  Eng 

lish  Literature. 
Rain  in  Summer. 
Tic  Rope-Walk. 

Dramatic  Poems. 

The  Spanish  Student. 

A  readable  three-act  play  of  "  cheery  grace." 
The  popular  song,  "  Stars  of  the  Summer  Night,"  occurs  in  this. 
Poe  criticised  the  work  with  great  hostility  of  spirit. 
Christus.    A  Trilogy. 

The  poet  worked  more  than  twenty  years  on  this  production. 

A  disappointment  to  the  writer. 

Three  Parts.    Connected  by  two  Interludes  and  a  Finale. 

a.  The  Divine  Tragedy.     (1871.) 
\s-       b.  The   Golden  Legend.    .(1851.)     The  best  of   the   poet's 

dramas. 
"  A  bundle  of  poems  tied  by  a  silken  string,  carrying  us 

into  the  very  heart  of  the  Middle  Ages." 
A  story  of  the  power  of  love  through  self-sacrifice.    Its 
characters,  —  a    peasant,    a    prince,    and    Lucifer. 
(Compare  with  Goethe's  Faust.) 

Scene  laid  in  Strasburg.     "The  Bells  of  Strasburg  Ca 
thedral  "  has  been  set  to  music  by  Franz  Liszt. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  215 

The  first  draught  of  the  "Legend  "  was  made  in  four 
weeks  ;  but  six  months  were  spent  in  "  correcting 
it  and  cutting  it  down." 

"Longfellow,  in  'The  Golden  Legend,'  has  entered 
more  closely  into  the  temper  of  the  monk,  for  good 
and  for  evil,  than  ever  yet  theological  writer  or  his 
torian,  though  they  may  have  given  their  life's  labor 
to  the  analysis."  —  RUSKIN. 

Blackwood!s  Magazine,  February,  1852.     Fraser's  Mag 
azine,  April,  1853. 
c.  New  England  Tragedies. 

I.  "  John  Endicott."     A  story  of  Quaker  persecution. 

II.  "  Giles   Corey  of  the  Salem  Farms."    A  story  of 
witchcraft. 

A  fourth  part  was  planned  by  the  poet,  a  painting  of  the  life  of 

the  Moravian  Sisters  at  Bethlehem,  Pa. 
A  brief  description  of  the  trilogy  is  given  in  Richardson,  II.,  pp. 

87-89. 

Judas  Maccabseus. 
The  Masque  of  Pandora. 

Its  story  is  that  of  Hawthorne's  "  Paradise  of  Children,"  in  the 

Wonder  Book. 

Acted  at  one  time  on  the  Boston  stage,  but  not  a  success. 
(Look  up  the  nature  of  Masques,  and  their  position  in  the  history 

of  the  English  Drama.) 
Michael  Angela.     Posthumous. 

A  finely  illustrated  edition  of  this  poem  has  been  published. 

Old  St.  David's  at  Radnor. 

Scene  laid  near  Philadelphia. 

Mad  Anthony  "Wayne  is  buried  in  the  churchyard. 
The  poet's  visit  to  the  spot  at  the  time  of  the  Philadelphia  Centen 
nial  suggested  the  writing  of  the  poem. 

In  the  Harbor. 

A  posthumous  volume  of  poems. 

The  Name.  Selected  by  the  poet  before  his  death,  appropriately 
following  that  of  the  preceding  volume,  Ultima  Thule. 

From  My  Arm-Chair. 

A  poem  of  acknowledgment  to  the  school-children  of  Cambridge. 

After  the  chair,  made  from  the  "spreading  chestnut-tree,"  had 
been  placed  in  his  home,  the  poet  commanded  that  no  child  who 
wished  to  see  it  should  be  denied  the  pleasure. 


216  HENRY    WADSWOBTH  LONGFELLOW. 

A  woodcut  of  this  chair  with  a  history  is  shown  in  Kennedy's  Life 
of  Longfellow,  p.  119. 

Sonnets. 

Longfellow's  sonnets  are  among  the  best  in  modern  poetry. 

"Uniformly  sound  and  good;  and  some  of  them  are  perfect  in 
degree,  though  inferior  in  spiritual  exaltation  to  the  great 
sonnets  of  Wordsworth,  Milton,  and  Shakespeare." 

Selected  Sonnets.  The  Three  Silences  of  Molinos  (to  Whittier). 
In  the  Churchyard  at  Tarrytown  (on  Irving).  Wapentake 
(to  Tennyson).  Woodstock  Park.  Holidays.  President  Gar- 
field.  Dante  (note  the  feminine  endings  in  some  of  the  verses). 
Venice.  The  Evening  Star.  The  Sound  of  the  Sea,  and  others. 

NOTE. — A  fac-simile  of  Wapentake  ("  Touch- Arms  ")  and  one  of 
Tennyson's  note  of  response  to  the  poem,  may  be  seen  in  The 
New  England  Magazine  for  December,  1892. 

A  noble  series  is  found  in  his  translation  of  Dante. 

Structure  of  a  Sonnet.    Consult  the  Analysis  of  Versification. 

Some  Lyrics  known  to  Old  and  Young. 

The  Rainy  Day.  The  Arrow  and  the  Song.  The  Day  is  Done. 
Maidenhood.  The  Bridge.  The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs.  Some 
thing  Left  Undone.  A  Psalm  of  Life. 

Poems  of  Friendship. 

The  Two  Angels.  Hymn  for  My  Brother's  Ordination  (his  biog 
rapher  brother,  Samuel).  Bayard  Taylor  (at  his  death).  Pre 
ludes  and  Interludes  to  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn.  Hawthorne 
(on  his  burial).  Charles  Sumner  (in  memoriam).  The  Three 
Silences  of  Molinos.  The  Burial  of  the  Poet  (Richard  Henry 
Dana).  From  My  Arm-Chair  (to  the  school-children  of  Cam 
bridge).  Auf  Wiedersehen  (in  memory  of  James  T.  Fields). 
Three  Friends  of  Mine  (Felton,  Agassiz,  Sumner).  Wapentake. 
The  Fiftieth  Birthday  of  Agassiz.  Noel  (to  Agassiz).  The 
Open  Window.  The  Fire  of  Driftwood.  The  Herons  of  Elm- 
wood  (in  Lowell's  absence  from  America). 

Poems  of  the  Sea. 

The  Wreck  of  the  Hesperus.  Seaweed.  The  Secret  of  the  Sea. 
The  Building  of  the  Ship.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert.  The  Light 
house.  The  Fire  of  Driftwood.  The  Sailing  of  the  Mayflower. 
The  Phantom  Ship  (compare  its  thought  with  the  legend  of  the 
"Flying  Dutchman").  My  Lost  Youth.  The  Brook  and  the 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  217 

Wave.  The  Bells  of  Lynn.  The  Sound  of  the  Sea.  A  Sum 
mer  Day  by  the  Sea.  The  Tides.  The  Tide  Rises,  The  Tide 
Falls.  A  Ballad  of  the  French  Fleet.  The  City  and  the  Sea. 

Verses  born  of  European  Travel. 

The  Belfry  of  Bruges.  Nuremberg.  Cadenabbia.  Monte  Cassino. 
Amalfi.  The  Old  Bridge  at  Florence.  Castles  in  Spain.  Song. 
Venice.  Boston  (St.  Botolph's  Town).  St.  John's,  Cambridge. 
Woodstock  Park.  To  the  River  Rhone. 

Translations. 

The  Children  of  the  Lord's  Supper.    From  the  Swedish. 
Poems  from  many  German  writers. 
Verses  from  many  different  languages. 
The  Divine  Comedy. 

A  masterpiece  of  translation. 

The  Translator's  Theory.     "A  literal  and  lineal  rendering." 
"He  discarded  the  rhymes  altogether,  while  striving  to  convey 
the  rhythm  and  deeper  music  of  the  sublime  original."  — 
STEDMAN. 

Its  strict  fidelity  to  the  original,  the  careful  scholarship  which 
had  literally  scrutinized  every  word,  the  frequent  combina 
tion  of  a  life-giving  spirit  with  the  exact  letter  of  utterance, 
gave  this  version  a  place  which  it  is  not  likely  to  lose,  at  the 
head,  on  the  whole,  of  English  translation  of  Dante."  — 
RICHARDSON. 
Consult  The  North  American  Review,  July,  1867  (Article  by 

C.  E.  Norton). 

"  None  of  his  translations  equal  his  original  work." 
Longfellow  introduced  the  legends  of  Old  World  places  and  liter 
ature  into  America. 

Works  Edited  by  Longfellow. 

Poems   of   Places.      Thirty-one    volumes,    arranged    according    to 

countries. 
The  Poets  and  Poetry  of  Europe.    A  large  anthology. 

Selections  from   three   hundred   and   sixty  authors,   including 

translations  from  ten  different  languages. 

The  introductions,  biographical  sketches,  criticisms,  and  many  of 
the  translations,  are  by  Longfellow  himself.  (Read  Long 
fellow  as  Critic  under  Miscellaneous  Notes). 

Posthumous  Poetry. 

In  the  Harbor.    Mad  River.    Decoration  Day. 


218  HENRY   WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Poems  of  Longfellow  set  to  Music. 

The  Arrow  and  the  Song.    The  Bridge.    The  Day  is  Done.    The 

Psalm  of  Life.    My  Lady  Sleeps.    The  Reaper  and  the  Flowers. 

She  is  Fooling  Thee.    The  Village  Blacksmith,  and  others. 
Ditson  &  Company,  Boston,  have  published  about  forty.   In  Scotland, 

also,  music  has  been  composed  for  a  number  of  them. 

Evidences  of  the  Poet's  Popularity. 

His  poems,  complete  or  in  part,  have  been  translated  into  German, 
Dutch,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Danish,  Italian,  Portuguese,  Span 
ish,  Polish,  Russian;  one  poem,  "Hiawatha,"  into  Latin;  one, 
"Excelsior,"  into  Hebrew;  one,  "The  Psalm  of  Life,"  into  Ma- 
rathi,  Chinese,  and  Sanscrit;  one,  "Keramos,"  into  Japanese. 
Of  the  Longfellow  Birthday  Book,  nineteen  thousand  copies 
were  sold  during  the  year  following  its  issue. 

His  Poetic  Measure. 

Varied. 

"  In  the  use  of  unrhymed  hexameter  and  unrhymed  trochaic 
tetrameter  [the  former  an  uncommon  and  difficult  metre  in 
English]  he  has  virtually  neither  rivals  nor  successors."  — 
RICHARDSON. 

Poems  in  Trochaic  Metre. 

Hiawatha.  The  Legend  Beautiful.  The  Emperor's  Glove. 
Bayard  Taylor.  Amalfi.  Songo  River.  A  Psalm  of  Life. 
Footsteps  of  Angels.  To  the  River  Charles.  Nuremberg. 
Something  Left  Undone.  The  Builders.  The  Children's 
Crusade. 

Poems  in  Anapestic  Metre. 

Sandalphon.    The  Children's  Hour.    Helen  of  Tyre. 

Other  interesting  Studies  in  Verse  and  Stanza  Structure. 

Hymn  to  the  Night.  The  Skeleton  in  Armor.  Endymion. 
Maidenhood.  Rain  in  Summer.  Afternoon  in  February. 
To  an  Old  Danish  Song-Book.  Curfew.  Evangeline.  Birds 
of  Passage.  Catawba  Wine.  Daybreak.  Enceladus.  Snow- 
flakes.  Aftermath.  Palingenesis.  Christmas  Bells.  The 
Chamber  Over  the  Gate.  From  My  Arm-Chair.  Robert 
Burns.  The  Sifting  of  Peter.  Loss  and  Gain. 

Longfellow  liked  best  the  metre  of  his  poem,  The  Day  is  Done. 

His  Poetic  Style. 

Graceful,  polished,  melodious,  artistic. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WHITINGS.  219 

Character  of  His  Poetry. 

Longfellow  is  not,  as  a  poet,  deep  or  intellectual,  like  Browning 
and  Tennyson,  musical  like  Poe,  impassioned  like  Whittier, 
original  and  philosophic  like  Emerson,  humorous  like  Lowell 
and  Holmes ;  but  his  writings  breathe  a  tender,  sympathetic, 
human,  serene  spirit,  and  are  acceptably  ethical. 

"His  sweet  and  pure  and  tender  genius  has  hallowed  all  domestic 
relations  and  events,  and  there  is  no  emotion  which  does  not 
readily  and  fitly  express  itself  in  his  verse."  —  CURTIS. 

Its  Scholarly  Nature.  "  His  verse  is  embroidered  with  allusions 
and  names  and  illustrations  wrought  with  a  taste  so  true  and  a 
skill  so  rare  that  the  robe,  though  it  be  cloth  of  gold,  is  as  finely 
flexible  as  linen,  and  still  beautifully  reveals,  not  conceals,  the 
living  form."  —  G.  \V.  CURTIS. 

Literary  Faults  Attributed  to  Him. 

Didacticism,  bookishness,  and  formal  imagery. 

("A  lifelong  moralizer,  he  shunned  cant  as  the  twin-devil  of  hypoc 
risy.") 

Brief  Comments  from  Stedman. 

"  Like  greater  bards  before  him,  he  was  a  good  borrower." 
"  The  world  of  books  was  to  him  the  real  world." 
"  Longfellow's  impulse  was  to  make  a  poem,  above  all,  interesting." 
"He  was  a  lyrical  artist  whose  taste  outranked  his  inspirations." 
"  Superlative  joy  and  woe  were  alike  foreign  to  the  verse  of  Long 
fellow.     It  came  neither  from  the  height  nor  out  of  the  depths, 
but  along  the  even  tenor  of  a  fortunate  life." 


220  HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Longfellow. 

"His  poetry  is  a  gospel  of  good-will  set  to  music."  —  F.  H.  UNDER 
WOOD. 

"Longfellow  has  made  'the  songs  of  a  people.'  His  works  are 
household  words  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken."  — 
CARDINAL  WISEMAN. 

"You  sang  me  out  of  all  my  worries." — LOWELL,  to  the  poet. 

"Longfellow  links  moral  truth  to  intellectual  beauty."  —  E.  P. 
WHIFFLE. 

"Nothing  lasts  like  a  coin  and  a  lyric."  —  HOLMES,  on  Longfel 
low's  poetry. 

"His  life  and  works  together  were  an  edifice  fairly  built, — the 
House  Beautiful,  whose  air  is  peace,  where  repose  and  calm  are 
ministrant,  and  where  the  raven's  croak,  symbol  of  the  unrest  of 
a  more  perturbed  genius,  is  never  heard.  .  .  .  He  convinces 
the  people  that  loveliness  and  righteousness  may  go  together." 
—  E.  C.  STEDMAN. 

"  Of  Longfellow's  life,  there  is  nothing  to  know  but  good ;  and  his 
poetry  testifies  to  it,  —  his  poetry,  the  voice  of  the  kindliest  and 
gentlest  heart  that  ever  poet  bore." — ANDREW  LANG. 

"While  the  magnetism  of  Longfellow's  touch  lies  in  the  broad  hu 
manity  of  his  sympathy,  which  leads  him  neither  to  mysticism 
nor  cynicism,  and  which  commends  his  poetry  to  the  universal 
heart,  his  artistic  sense  is  so  exquisite  that  each  of  his  poems  is 
a  valuable  literary  study."  —  GEORGE  W.  CURTIS. 

"There  is  no  blot  on  the  crystal  purity  of  his  writings." — J.  G. 
WHITTIER. 

"  He  was  the  natural  friend  and  earnest  advocate  of  every  good  cause 
and  right  idea."  —  WILLIAM  WINTER. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  study  so  pure  a  life  as  this  volume  commemo 
rates,  without  receiving  some  of  its  lustre  and  perfume  into  one's 
own  nature."  —  W.  S.  KENNEDY  in  the  Preface  to  his  Life  of 
Lone/fellow. 

"  Longfellow  has  taught  more  people  to  love  poetry  than  any  other 
English  writer,  however  great." — MEIKLEJOHN. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  221 

"  "What  he  misses  in  intellectual  greatness  he  possesses  in  heartful- 
ness."  —  RICHARDSON. 

"  His  heart  was  pure,  his  purpose  high, 

His  thought  serene,  his  patience  vast; 
He  put  all  strifes  of  passion  by, 
And  lived  to  God,  from  first  to  last." 

WILLIAM  WINTER. 

Poems  by  Lowell,  Holmes,  Edith  Thomas,  Austin  Dobson,  Margaret 
Preston,  Katherine  Lee  Bates,  and  others. 

NOTE.  —  For  other  tributes,  consult   The  Literary   World,  Feb.  26, 

1881,  and  Kennedy's  Life  of  Longfellow. 
The  Craigie  House. 

Brattle  Street,  Cambridge. 

Longfellow's  home  for  forty  years. 

Originally  the  Vassal  House.  (The  tombstone  of  one  of  the  family 
of  Vassals  called  forth  Longfellow's  poem,  "In  the  Churchyard 
at  Cambridge.") 

Built  in  1759.     Fine  example  of  colonial  architecture. 

"  Guarded  by  stately  poplars."  Commands  a  fine  view  of  the  Charles 
River. 

"The  most  historic  building  in  New  England  save  Faneuil  Hall." 

Washington's  headquarters  for  nine  months  after  the  Battle  of 
Bunker  Hill. 

Talleyrand  and  Lafayette  slept  in  the  house. 

Home  for  years  of  Thomas  Tracy,  "a  sort  of  American  Vathek;" 
bought  of  him  by  Andrew  Craigie. 

Jared  Sparks,  President  of  Harvard,  kept  house  in  it. 

Half  a  mile  from  the  college;  three-quarters'  from  Elmwood,  Low 
ell's  home. 

Longfellow,  Jared  Sparks,  Edward  Everett,  and  Joseph  E.  Worces 
ter,  the  lexicographer,  lodged  herewith  the  widow  of  Mr.  Craigie, 
before  Longfellow's  marriage.  (For  Mrs.  Craigie's  eccentricities, 
see  Stoddard,  Kennedy,  H.  T.  Griswold.) 

Generous  hospitality.  —  Here  the  poet  received  cordially  his  most 
distinguished  foreign  visitors  and  the  humblest  child  admirer. 
"  He  was  the  most  gracious  of  men  in  his  own  home."  — PROFES 
SOR  NORTON. 

Possesses  many  interesting  and  curious  treasures. 

Esther  Wynn's  "Love  Letters"  were  found  in  this  house  by  Long 
fellow,— the  basis  of  one  of  Saxe  Holm's  stories.  They  were 
letters  addressed  to  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Craigie. 


222  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Its  Study.  — Contains,  among  other  things,  the  original  MSS.  of  the 
poet's  works  in  bound  volumes,  Coleridge's  inkstand,  a  Cellini 
cup,  and  "the  children's  arm-chair."  A  good  view  is  given  in 
Final  Memorials  of  Longfellow,  p.  400. 

For  views  of  the  house,  consult  Stoddard's  Poets1  Homes;  Harper, 
January,  1876,  and  June,  1894 ;  Kennedy's  Life ;  Wolfe's  Literary 
Shrines. 

NOTES.  —  Brattle  Street  has  recently  been  rescued  by  public-spirited 

citizens  from  the  encroachments  of  an  electric  railway. 
Longfellow  had  a  summer  home  at  Nahant. 

First  Published  Poem. 

"  The  Battle  of  Lovell's  Pond."    Not  extant. 

Appeared  in  the  poet's  corner  of  a  Portland  newspaper  the  winter 
before  its  writer  went  to  college. 

Three  American  "Swan-Songs." 

Longfellow's  "Morituri  Salutamus,"  Holmes's  "The  Iron  Gate," 
Bryant's  "  The  Flood  of  Years." 

Longfellow's  Last  Public  Appearance.    Dec.  28,  1880. 

With  Holmes,  on  the  platform  of  Sanders  Theatre,  at  the  celebra 
tion  of  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding 
of  Cambridge. 

A  thousand  grammar-school  children  were  among  the  audience,  and 
the  poet  gave  every  one  of  them  who  wished  it  his  autograph. 

Last  Written  Lines.     (Nine  days  before  his  death.) 

"  Out  of  the  shadows  of  night, 
The  world  rolls  into  light ; 
It  is  daybreak  everywhere." 

The  Bells  of  San  Bias. 

Afac-simile  of  the  stanza  is  shown  in  Samuel  Longfellow's  Long 
fellow,  Vol.  II. 

The  poem  was  written  after  the  destruction  of  a  convent  on  the 
Pacific  slope. 

The  writings  of  the  poet's  advanced  age  equalled  those  of  his  prime. 

Life  Motto.     (Adopted  after  the  early  death  of  his  wife.) 

"Look   not  mournfully  into  the   Past,   it  comes  not  back  again; 
wisely  improve  the  Present,  it  is  thine ;  go  forth  to  meet  the 
shadowy  Future  without  fear  and  with  a  manly  heart." 
(Used  as  prefatory  lines  in  Hyperion  [quoted].) 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  223 

A  Critical  Worker. 

The  poet  is  said  to  have  re-written  wholly  The  Divine  Tragedy 

after  it  was  in  type. 

He  could  not  compose  for  occasions,  distrusting  his  own  power ;  he 
declined  a  thousand  dollars  for  a  poem  on  Garfield,  offered  by 
a  Boston  paper  at  the  time  of  the  President's  assassination, 
although  he  had  in  his  pocket  the  first  draught  of  his  sonnet 
on  Garfield. 
As  Critic. 

"  He  belonged,  by  nature  and  choice,  to  the  expository  school ;  he 
was  unfitted  for  severe,  destructive,  or  brilliantly  critical  work ; 
and  his  ability  lay  chiefly  in  his  power  to  describe  justly  and 
attractively  the  things  he  liked.  .  .  .  Too  learned  to  commend 
trash,  too  gentle  to  wield  a  critical  scourge,  his  work  of  instruc 
tion  and  stimulus  was  done  at  a  time  when  it  was  very  effec 
tive."  —  RICHARDSON. 
Longfellow  and  Transcendentalism. 

The  poet  was  friendly  with  the  transcendental  thinkers,  but  lived 
outside  their  circle.    He  was  "  as  untouched  by  this  faith  as 
Charles  Lamb  by  the  wars  of  Napoleon." 
His  Early  Friends. 

Charles  Surnner.    George  S.  Hillard.    Cornelius  C.  Felton.    Samuel 

Ward,  Mrs.  Howe's  brother.     Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 
Later  Friends. 

Louis  Agassiz.    J.  R.  Lowell.    Richard  H.  Dana.    Whittier.    James 

T.  Fields.     O.  W.  Holmes.     Charles  Eliot  Norton. 

Longfellow's  Copy  of  Horace  is  kept  at  Bowdoin  College,  and  bears  the 
owner's  signature,  together  with  that  of  Professor  Calvin  E.  Stowe 
(husband  of  the  novelist,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe),  and  the  date 
"1824." 
A  Poet's  Pun. 

When  Longfellow  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Nicholas  Longworth  of 
Cincinnati,  allusion  was  made  to  the  likeness  of  the  first  syllable 
of  their  names.  Longfellow  quoted  at  once  Pope's  line, 

"  Worth  makes  the  man,  and  want  of  it  the  fellow." 
NOTE.  —  "  Our  poet's  genial  song,  '  Catawba  Wine,'  is  understood  to 
have  been  written  on  the  receipt  of  a  case  of  that  delicate 
liquor  from  his  Cincinnati  friend." — KENNEDY. 
Anecdotes. 

See  Hale,  H.  T.  Griswold,  Shepard,  Stoddard,  and  Lives  of  the  poet. 


224  HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Longfellow  on  the  Study  of  Language. 

"By  every  language  you  learn,  a  new  world  is  opened  before  you. 
It  is  like  being  born  again." 

Income  from  His  Pen. 

Tennyson  is  said  to  have  realized  more  money  from  poetry  than  any 
other  English-writing  poet;  Longfellow  and  "Whittier  stood  not 
far  behind  him. 

His  Autograph. 

Probably  no  famous  man  was  ever  more  besieged  by  autograph  hun 
ters.  His  patience  was  inexhaustible.  Only  the  week  before 
his  death  he  received  a  call  from  four  Boston  schoolboys,  and 
wrote  in  their  albums. 

He  kept  a  store  of  autographs  at  hand  with  which  to  meet  re 
quests. 

An  Idealized  Puritan. 

"Child  of  New  England,  and  trained  by  her  best  influences;  of  a 
temperament  singularly  sweet  and  serene,  and  with  the  sturdy 
rectitude  of  his  race,  refined  and  softened  by  wide  contact  with 
other  lands  and  many  men ;  born  in  prosperity,  accomplished  in 
all  literatures,  and  himself  a  literary  artist  of  consummate 
elegance,  —  he  was  the  fine  flower  of  the  Puritan  stock  under  its 
changed  modern  conditions.  Out  of  strength  had  come  forth 
sweetness.  The  grim  iconoclast,  '  humming  a  surly  hymn,' 
had  issued  in  the  Christian  gentleman.  Captain  Miles  Standish 
had  risen  into  Sir  Philip  Sidney."  —  GEORGE  W.  CURTIS. 

Longfellow's  Mission. 

"He  helped  to  utter  the  emotions  of  the  universal  human  heart.  It 
is  when  a  writer  speaks  for  us  what  were  else  unspoken  —  setting 
our  minds  free,  and  giving  us  strength  to  meet  the  cares  of  life 
and  the  hour  of  death  —  that  he  first  becomes  of  real  value. 
Longfellow  has  done  this  for  thousands  of  human  beings,  and 
done  it  in  the  language  of  perfect  simplicity,  —  never  bald,  never 
insipid,  never  failing  to  exalt  the  subject,  —  which  is  at  once  the 
most  beautiful  and  the  most  difficult  of  all  the  elements  of 
literature." — WILLIAM  WINTER. 

Longfellow,  Whittier,  Emerson,  Poe. 

"  Like  Whittier,  Longfellow  is  beloved  ;  like  Emerson,  he  is  honored 
for  his  poetic  evangel;  and,  like  Poe,  he  is  studied  as  an  artist 
in  words  and  metrical  effects." 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  225 

Longfellow  and  Whittier  Contrasted. 

Longfellow.  Whittier. 

Ideal.  Real. 

Artistic.  Natural. 

Symmetrical.  Of  limited  culture. 

Elegant.  Vigorous. 

Reposeful.  Vehement. 

Attractively  moral.  Intensely  moral. 

Cosmopolitan.  A  New  England  product. 

Literary.  Pastoral. 

Longfellow  and  Lowell. 

"Longfellow  —  less  brilliant  than  Lowell,  whether  as  a  poet  or  a 
student,  but  his  superior  in  patient  industry  and  evenness  of 
taste."  —  STEDMAN. 

Some  Studies  in  Longfellow. 

The  countries  and  times  to  which  he  turned  for  his  poetic  themes. 
The  secret  of  his  popularity.    Evangeline  and  Priscilla.    His 
metrical  expertness.    His  poems  of  friendship. 
See  W.  C.  Gannett's  Studies  in  Longfellow.    (Riverside  Literature 
Series.) 

Illustrated  Editions  of  Longfellow.    (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.) 

Complete  Works.    Subscription  Edition.    Three  quarto  volumes. 
Poems.    Four  one-volumed  editions. 
Individual  Works. 

Christus.    Hiawatha.    Evangeline.    The  Building  of  the  Ship. 

The  Hanging  of  the  Crane.     Michael  Angelo. 
Twenty  Poems.    Birthday  Book.    Prose  Birthday  Book. 

Annotated  Editions.     (By  the  same  firm.) 

Complete  Works.    New  Riverside  Edition.    Eleven  volumes. 
Individual  and  Selected  Works. 

a.  In  "Riverside  Literature"  form.     Evangeline.    The  Court 

ship  of  Miles  Standish.  Lyrics  and  Ballads  (twenty-one 
in  number).  Hiawatha.  The  Golden  Legend.  Tales 
of  a  Wayside  Inn. 

b.  In   "American  Poems."      Evangeline.      The   Courtship  of 

Miles  Standish.    The  Building  of  the  Ship. 

c.  In  "Masterpieces  of  American  Literature."     Evangeline. 

d.  Translation  of  the  Divina  Commedia  of  Dante. 


226  HENRY   WADSWOETH  LONGFELLOW. 

Anthologies  by  American  Authors. 

Bryant's  Library  of  Poetry  and  Song.  Emerson's  Parnassus. 
Longfellow's  Poets  and  Poetry  of  Europe.  Whittier's  Songs  of 
Three  Centuries.  Charles  A.  Dana's  Household  Book  of  Poetry. 

A  Group  of  Writers  on  the  Indian. 

James  F.  Cooper.  The  Romancer  of  the  Indian. 

Henry  \V.  Longfellow.     The  Poet  of  the  Indian. 
Francis  Parkman.  The  Historian  of  the  Indian. 

Helen  Hunt  Jackson.       The  Novelist  of  the  Indian. 


JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

POET,  CRITIC,  DIPLOMAT,  EDITOR,  ABOLITIONIST. 


EXTRACTS. 

THOSE  love  her  [Truth]  best  who  to  themselves  are  true, 
And  what  they  dare  to  dream  of,  dare  to  do. 

HARVARD  COMMEMORATION  ODE. 

'Tis  not  the  grapes  of  Canaan  that  repay, 
'Tis  the  high  faith  that  fails  not  by  the  way. 

IBID. 

BE  noble  !  and  the  nobleness  that  lies, 

In  other  men,  sleeping,  but  never  dead, 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own.  v 

SONNET  IV.     Edition  of  1865. 

'Tis  heaven  alone  that  is  given  away, 
'Tis  only  God  may  be  had  for  the  asking. 

VISION  OF  SIK  LAUNFAI,. 

THE  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare  ; 

Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three,  — 

Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  me. 

IBID. 

EARTH'S  noblest  thing,  a  woman  perfected. 

IRENE. 
LIFE  is  a  leaf  of  paper  white 

Whereon  each  one  of  us  may  write 
His  word  or  two,  and  then  comes  night. 

FOR  AN  AUTOGRAPH. 
229 


230  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

NOT  failure,  but  low  aim,  is  crime. 

FOR  AN  AUTOGRAPH. 

To  learn  such  a  simple  lesson, 
Need  I  go  to  Paris  and  Rome, 
That  the  many  make  the  household, 

But  only  one  the  home  ? 

THE  DEAD  HOUSE. 

SHE  doeth  little  kindnesses,, 
Which  most  leave  undone  or  despise  ; 
For  naught  that  sets  one  heart  at  ease, 
And  giveth  happiness  or  peace, 

Is  low-esteemed  in  her  eyes. 

MY  LOVE. 

MAN  is  more  than  Constitutions  ;  better  rot  beneath  the 

sod, 
Than  be  true  to  Church  and  State  while  we  are  doubly 

false  to  God  ! 

ON  THE  CAPTURE  OF  FUGITIVE  SLAVES. 

'Tis  ours  to  save  our  brethren,  with  peace  and  love  to  win 
Their  darkened  heart  from  error,  ere  they  harden  it  to  sin ; 
But  if  before  his  duty  man  with  listless  spirit  stands, 
Ere  long  the  Great  Avenger  takes  the  work  from  out  his 
hands.  IBID. 

GOD  hates  your  sneakin'  creturs  that  believe 
He'll  settle  things  they  run  away  and  leave. 

THE  BIGLOW  PAPERS. 

Ez  fer  war,  I  call  it  murder,  — 
There  you  hev  it  plain  and  flat ; 
I  don't  want  to  go  no  furder 

Than  my  Testyment  fer  that. 

IBID. 


EXTRACTS.  231 

AN'  she'd  blush  scarlit,  right  in  prayer, 
When  her  new  meetiu'-bunnet 
Felt  somehow  thru'  its  crown  a  pair 

Of  blue  eyes  sot  upon  it. 

THE  COURTLN'. 

THERE'S  a  narrow  ridge  in  the  graveyard 
Would  scarce  stay  a  child  in  his  race, 
But  to  me  and  my  thought  it  is  wider 
Than  the  star-sown  vague  of  space. 

AFTER  THE  BURIAL. 

EACH  age  must  worship  its  own  thought  of  God. 

THE  CATHEDRAL. 

ONCE  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  the  moment  to  decide, 
In  the  strife  of  Truth  with  Falsehood,  for  the  good  or 

evil  side  ; 
Some  great  cause,  God's  new  Messiah,  offering  each  the 

bloom  or  blight, 
Parts  the  goats  upon  the  left  hand,  and  the  sheep  upon 

the  right, 
And  the  choice  goes  by  forever  'twixt  that  darkness  and 

that  light.  THE  PRESENT  CRISIS. 

GOD  scatters  love  on  every  side, 
Freely  among  his  children  all, 
And  always  hearts  are  lying  open  wide, 
Wherein  some  grains  may  fall. 

There  is  no  wind  but  soweth  seeds 
Of  a  more  true  and  open  life, 

Which  burst,  unlocked  for,  into  high-souled  deeds, 
With  wayside  beauty  rife. 

AN  INCIDENT  IN  A  RAILROAD  CAR. 


232  JAMES   RUSSELL    LOWELL. 

SOMEWHERE  is  comfort,  somewhere  faith, 

Though  thou  in  outer  dark  remain ; 
One  sweet,  sad  voice  ennobles  death, 
And  still,  for  eighteen  centuries  saith 

Softly,  —  "  Ye  meet  again  !  " 

PALINODE. 

SHOULD  a  man  discover  the  art  of  transmuting  metals, 
and  present  us  with  a  lump  of  gold  as  large  as  an  ostrich 
egg,  would  it  be  in  human  nature  to  inquire  too  nicely 

whether  he  had  stolen  the  lead  ? 

ESSAY  ON  CHAUCER. 

CHAUCER  had  been  in  his  grave  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ere  England  had  secreted  choice  material  enough 

for  the  making  of  another  great  poet. 

IBID. 

GOD  is  the  only  being  who  has  time  enough ;  but  a 
prudent  man,  who  knows  how  to  seize  occasion,  can  com 
monly  make  a  shift  to  find  as  much  as  he  needs. 

ESSAY  ON  LINCOLN. 

EVERY  mortal  man  of  us  holds  stock  in  the  only  public 
debt  that  is  absolutely  sure  of  payment,  and  that  is  the 
debt  of  the  Maker  of  this  Universe  to  the  Universe  he 
has  made.  I  have  no  notion  of  selling  out  my  stock  in 

a  panic. 

ON  A  CERTAIN  CONDESCENSION  IN  FOREIGNERS. 

As  for  associations,  if  one  have  not  the  wit  to  make 
them  for  himself  out  of  his  native  earth,  no  ready-made 
ones  of  other  men  will  avail  him  much.  Lexington  is 
none  the  worse  to  me  for  not  being  in  Greece,  nor  Gettys 
burg  that  its  name  is  not  Marathon. 

IBID. 


EXTRACTS.  233 

JUST  so  many  misdirected  letters  every  year  and  no 
more  !  Would  it  were  as  easy  to  reckon  up  the  number 
of  men  on  whose  backs  fate  has  written  the  wrong  ad 
dress,  so  that  they  arrive  by  mistake  in  Congress  and 
other  places  where  they  do  not  belong. 

ON  A  CERTAIN  CONDESCENSION  IN  FOREIGNERS. 

BUT  then  it  is  a  fact  in  the  natural  history  of  the 
American,  long  familiar  to  Europeans,  that  he  abhors 
privacy,  knows  not  the  meaning  of  reserve,  lives  in 
hotels  because  of  their  greater  publicity,  and  is  never 
so  pleased  as  when  his  domestic  affairs  (if  he  may  be 
said  to  have  any)  are  paraded  in  the  newspapers.  Bar- 
num,  it  is  well  known,  represents  perfectly  the  average 
national  sentiment  in  this  respect.  j 

THE  robins  are  not  good  solo  singers ;  but  their  chorus, 
as,  like  primitive  fire-worshippers,  they  hail  the  return  of 
light  and  warmth  to  the  world,  is  unrivalled.  There  are 
a  hundred  singing  like  one.  They  are  noisy  enough  then, 
and  sing,  as  poets  should,  with  no  afterthought. 

MY  GARDEN  ACQUAINTANCE. 

ONE  is  far  enough  withdrawn  from  his  fellows  if  he 
keeps  himself  clear  of  their  weaknesses.  He  is  not  so 
truly  withdrawn  as  exiled,  if  he  refuses  to  share  in  their 

strenSth-  ESSAY  ON  THOBEAU. 

A  MAN  may  surpass  himself  or  fall  short  of  himself, 
but  he  cannot  change  his  nature. 

ESSAY  ON  SHAKESPEARE'S  RICHARD  III. 

THE  pluralizing  in  his  single  person,  by  the  Editor  of 
the  Newspaper  of  the  offices  once  divided  among  the 
Church,  the  University,  and  the  Courts  of  Law,  is  one  of 


234  JAMES  BUS  SELL   LOWELL. 

the  most  striking  phenomena  of  modern  times  in  demo 
cratized  countries,  and  is  calculated  to  inspire  thoughtful 
men  with  some  distrust. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  WORLD. 

ONCE  in  my  life  I  have  heard  a  funeral  elegy  which 
was  wholly  adequate.  It  was  the  long,  quavering  howl 
of  a  dog  under  a  window  of  the  chamber  in  which  his 
master  had  at  that  moment  died.  It  was  Nature's  cry 
of  grief  and  terror  at  the  first  sight  of  Death.  That 
faithful  creature  was  not  trying  to  say  something ;  so  far 
from  it,  that  even  the  little  skill  in  articulation  which 
his  race  has  acquired  was  choked  in  the  gripe  of  such 
disaster.  Consolation  would  shrink  away  abashed  from 
the  presence  of  so  helpless  a  grief. 

ESSAT  ON  ISAAC  WALTON. 

I  WAS  reminded  of  him  [one  of  Emerson's  listeners]  by 
those  hearty  cherubs  in  Titian's  "Assumption,"  that  look 
at  you  as  who  should  say,  "  Did  you  ever  see  a  Madonna 
like  that  ?  Did  you  ever  behold  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  womanhood  mount  heavenward  before  like  a 

rocket  ? " 

EMERSON  THE  LECTURER. 

"  IF  a  man  does  anything  good,  the  world  always  finds 
it  out  sooner  or  later ;  and,  if  he  doesn't,  the  world 

finds  that  out  too." 

LETTER  TO  A  FRIEND. 


REFERENCES.  235 


REFERENCES. 

F.  H.  Underwood's  Biographical  Sketch  of  Lowell,  and  The  Poet  and  the 

Man. 
Letters  of  James  Russell  Lowell. 

G.  E.  Woodberry's  Life  of  Lowell. 
E.  E.  Brown's  Life  of  Lowell. 

^~  Stedman's  Poets  of  America. 

Hattie  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 
^  R.  H.  Stoddard's  Poets'  Homes. 
^  G.  W.  Curtis's  Homes  of  American  Authors. 

H.  R.  Haweis's  American  Humorists. 

E.  P.  Whipple's  Outlooks  on  Society. 

Sarah  K.  Bolton's  Famous  American  Authors. 

Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 

Stedmau-Hutcliiiison's  Library  of  American  Literature.     Vol.  VII. 

Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 

G.  F.  Richardson's  American  Literature. 

Duyckiiick's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature. 

Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 

Penniman's  Syllabus  of  University  Extension  Lectures  on  American 
Authors. 

Theodore  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 
•^"The  Century  Magazine.     May,  1882.    August,  1893. 
j^The  Review  of  Reviews.     October,  1891  (Five  articles  on  Lowell). 

The  Arena.  May,  1894  O'The  Religion  of  Lowell's  Poems."  By  Minot 
J.  Savage). 

The  Literary  World.    June  27,  1885. 

The  Critic.    Lowell  Number.     Feb.  20,  1889. 

The  Critic.    Aug.  15,  Aug.  22,  Aug.  29,  Oct.  12,  1891.     Feb.  25,  1893. 

The  Cambridge  Tribune.    Lowell  Number.     Feb.  20,  1892. 
^~The  Atlantic  Monthly.    January,  1892.     (Lowell  in  London.) 

The  New  England  Magazine^  October,  1891  (Three  articles).  Novem 
ber,  1891  (Two  articles  ;  one  illustrated). 

Harper's  Magazine.  January,  1876  ("Cambridge  on  the  Charles." 
Illustrated).  January,  1881  (Article  by  F.  H.  Underwood.  Illus 
trated).  June,  1894  (Howells's  "  My  First  Visit  to  New  England  "). 


236  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

Harper's  Weekly.    June  20,  1885. 

Beers's,  Hawthorne  and  Lemmon's,  Morgan's,  and  other  text-books  of 
American  Literature. 

NOTES.  —  For  a  classification  of  his  poems,  see  Miss  Hodgkins's  Guide 

to  the  Study  of  Nineteenth  Century  Authors. 
For  critical  references,  consult  Welsh's  English  Masterpiece  Course. 


OUTLINE   OF  HIS   LIFE.  237 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

February  22,  1819. 
August  12,  1891. 

Born  the  same  year  with  Charles  A.  Dana,  Walt  Whitman,  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  W.  W.  Story,  T.  W.  Par 
sons,  George  Eliot,  Charles  Kingsley,  and  John  Ruskin. 

Ancestors. 

"  Distinguished  in  every  generation." 

Eight  generations  in  this  country. 

Percival  Lowell  (Lowle)  of  Bristol,  England,  settled  in  New- 

bury,  Mass.,  in  1639. 
The  city  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  was  named  for  one  of  them. 

Grandfather,  Judge  John  Lowell,  caused  the  phrase,  "All  men  are 
created  free  and  equal,"  to  be  inserted  in  the  Constitution  of 
Massachusetts.     "  A  good  sort  of  grandfather  for  the  author 
of  the  Biglow  Papers."  —  DR.  HALE. 
"  Public  spirit  was  the  natural  inheritance  of  the  Lowells." 

Father. 

Charles  Lowell,  a  Unitarian  clergyman  in  Boston,  settled  for 

fifty  years  over  the  West  Church. 
Mother. 

Gifted  musician  and  linguist. 

Lowell  inherited  from  her  his  poetic  and  imaginative  faculty. 

Her  family  was   descended,  according   to   tradition,   from   Sir 

Patrick  Spens,  of  ballad  fame. 
Lost  her  mental  powers.     See  poem,  "  The  Darkened  Mind." 

Youngest  of  five  children. 

Youth. 

"Nurtured  with  romance  and  minstrelsy.' 
As  a  boy  Lowell  used  well  his  father's  library. 


238  JAMES  RU K SELL    LOWELL. 

"He  could  have  passed  a  better  examination,  probably,  in 
Scottish  ballads,  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  Froissart's  Chronicles, 
and  old  plays,  than  in  conic  sections  or  Greek  prosody." 

Home. 

"Elmwood,"  Cambridge,  Mass.     Near  Mt.  Auburn  Cemetery. 

Lowell's  only  home  save  when  living  abroad. 

Old  Tory  mansion  built  just  before  the  American  Eevolution  by 

a  "stamp"  distributer. 
Set   in  spacious  grounds,  and  surrounded  by  fine  English  elms 

and  beautiful  ash-trees,  planted  by  the  poet's  father. 
Its  birds  and  trees  have  been  made  familiar  to  us  through  My 

Garden  Acquaintance. 

Not  far  from  Craigie  Cottage,  Longfellow's  home. 
Formerly  occupied   by  Elbridge    Gerry,   Vice-President  of  the 

United  States. 
Its  Motto,  brought  from  the  ancestral  home  at  Newbury,  Mass. 

"  In  necessariis,    unitas  ;   in   non  necessariis,  libertas  ;    in 

omnibus,  caritas." 

See  Longfellow's  poem,  "  The  Herons  of  Elmwood." 
For  view,  consult  the  Art  Journal,  1878,  and  Stoddard's  Poets' 

Homes.     Read,  also,  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 
For  a  woodcut  of  Lowell  in  his  study,  see  frontispiece  of  The 

New  England  Magazine  for  October,  1891. 

Education. 

Harvard,  class  of  1838. 

At  this  time  he  used  to  say,  "  he  read  almost  everything  except 

the  text-books  prescribed  by  the  Faculty." 
Classmates.     William  W.  Story  and  George  P.  Loring. 
(Dr.  E.  E.  Hale  was  a  member  of  the  following  class.) 
Class  Poem.      Written  during    "rustication"    at   Concord.     A 

witty   attack   on   the   Abolitionists    (whose   cause   he   soon 

learned  to  champion),  on  Carlyle,  Emerson,  and  the  Tran- 

scendentalists  then  prominent  at  Concord. 
Lowell  alludes  to   his  rustication  in  the  second   series  of    The 

Biglow  Papers,  "Mason  and  Slidell." 
Read  his  essay,   "  Cambridge  Thirty  Years  Ago,"    in  Fireside 

Travels. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  239 

Admission  to  the  Bar. 

His  story,  "  My  First  Client,"  is  the  only  record  of  his  practice. 

Publication  of  His  First  Volume  of  Poems. 
A  Year's  Life.     1841. 
Dedicated  to  "  Una,"  Maria  White. 
The  "Shepherd  of  Admetus,"  "The  Heritage,"  and  others. 

Edits  throe  numbers  of  a  literary  magazine,  The  Pioneer. 

Hawthorne,  Whittier,  Poe,  and  Miss  Barrett  (Mrs.  Browning) 

were  contributors.     Poe's  "Lenore"  first  appeared  here. 
(See  illustrated  article  in  The  New  England  Magazine,  October, 
1891.) 

Marriage  to  Maria  White  (1844)  of  Water-town,  sister  of  a  classmate. 
"It  was  ideally  beautiful,  and  nothing  was  wanted  to  perfect 

happiness  but  the  sense  of  permanence."  —  UNDEKWOOD. 
Miss  White  was  beautiful,  accomplished,  and  a  poet. 
"  She  made  a  Garrisonian  Abolitionist  of  her  lover." 
Died  in  October,  1853,  the  same  night  a  child  was  born  to  Long 
fellow. 

See  Longfellow's  poem  "  The  Two  Angels." 
"  And  softly  from  that  hushed  and  darkened  room, 

Two  angels  issued  where  but  one  went  in." 
Four   Children. 

All  of  them  died  in  infancy  save  one,  Mabel,  alluded  to  in  the 
touching  poem,  "  The  First  Snow-Fall."     Eead  the  poems, 
"  The  Changeling,"  and  "  She  Came  and  Went  ;  "  also,  Mrs. 
Lowell's   poem,    "The   Alpine   Sheep"    (found   in   Under 
wood's  Biograpldcal  Sketch  of  Lowell,  p.  56). 
Early  Stand  for  Abolition. 

"  Lowell's  patriotic  verse  lightens  every  part  of  our  national 
chronicle." 

Publications  of  the  Year  1848. 

The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal.  The  Fable  for  Critics.  The  Pres 
ent  Crisis.  Incident  in  a  Railroad  Car.  The  Biglow 
Papers. 

Lecturer  before  the  Lowell  Institute,  Boston. 
Delivers  twelve  lecturers  on  British  Poets. 


240  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

The  Institute  was  founded  by  an  uncle  of  the  poet,  John 
Lowell,  Jr.,  who  made  his  will  when  on  the  summit  of  the 
great  pyramid,  bequeathing  §250,000  for  annual  courses  of 
free  lectures.  (See  article  on  the  subject,  in  The  New 
England  Magazine,  February,  1895.) 

Professor  of  Modern  Languages  and  Belles-Lettres  at  Harvard,  suc 
ceeding  Longfellow.     1855. 

Two  years  of  preparatory  European  travel  and  study,  the  latter 
chiefly  in  Dresden. 

Returned  unexpectedly  early  because  he  kept  no  account  of  his 
bank  drafts,  and  received  notification  from  his  bankers  that 
his  balance  was  reduced  to  a  certain  sum.  (Discovered  later 
to  be  a  mistake. ) 

Lectures,  also,  in  the  Harvard  Law  School. 

A  popular  professor. 

"  He  not  only  knew,  but  loved,  what  he  taught." 

"  It  was  difficult  for  Lowell  to  give  a  low  mark  to  a  good-look 
ing  or  a  well-mannered  fellow." 
Second  Marriage,  to  Miss  Frances  Dunlap,  of  Portland,  Maine,  who 

had  been  an  instructor  of  his  daughter  when  Lowell  was  in 

Europe. 
First  Editor  of  The  Atlantic  Monthly.     1857-1862. 

Salary,  $3,000. 

Lowell  was  willing  to  be  its  editor  on  condition  that  Dr.  Holmes 
should  be  a  contributor. 

(Lowell  was  succeeded  by  James  T.  Fields.) 

Editor,  for  Ten  Years,  with   Charles  Eliot  Norton,  of  The   North 
American  Review. 

Essays  published  in  this,  collected  under  Among  My  Books,  and 

My  Study  Window. 
Two  Years  in  Europe. 

Third  visit. 

Degree  of  D.C.L.  from  Oxford,  and  of  LL.D.  from  Cambridge. 
Presidential  Elector. 
Minister  to  Spain  under  President  Hayes. 

"During  his  stay  there  he  made  himself  the 'friend  of  every 
body  who  was  engaged  in  the  improvement  and  uplifting 
of  Spain." 


OUTLINE   OF  HIS   LIFE.  241 

Transferred  to  England.     1880-1885. 
His  patriotism  noteworthy. 
Very  popular  in  social  and  public  life. 
"The  sparkle  of  his  talk  was  perennial."     "His  after-dinner 

speeches  filled  those  who  heard  them  with  despairing  envy." 
He  won  the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  English  nation. 
"  The  islands  seemed  brighter  for  his  coming." 
Made  the  address  on  Coleridge  when  a  bust  of  the  poet  was 

unveiled  at  Westminster  Abbey. 

Speeches  published  in  "  Democracy  and  other  Essays." 
Gladstone's  adoption  of  his  Home  Rule  policy  was  hastened  by 

Lowell's  influence  over  him  when  in  England. 
Death  of  Mrs.  Lowell. 

Retired  Life  with  his  only  daughter,  at  Southboro,  Mass. 

Lectures  Again  before  the  Lowell  Institute. 
On  English  Dramatists. 

Return  to  Elmwood.     1889. 

Valuable   worker   in   the    campaign   for  the    Copyright   Law. 
President  of  the  League. 

Death  at  Elmwood. 

Burial  from  Appleton  Chapel,  Cambridge. 
Phillips  Brooks,  the  officiating  clergyman. 
O.  W.  Holmes  and  Judge  Hoar,  among  the  pall-bearers. 

Resting-Place. 

Mt.  Auburn  Cemetery.     Near  Longfellow. 

Literary  Executor. 

Charles  Eliot  Norton. 

Lowell's    "  Under  The    Willows  "    is  dedicated    to  Professor 
Norton. 

Memorial  Service  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

"  Two  worlds  their  wreaths  of  honor  have  entwined 
About  an  open  grave." 

Memorial  Window  in  the  Chapter  House,  Westminster  Abbey.    1893. 
See  The  Critic,  Dec.  2  and  Dec.  23,  1893. 


242  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

Character. 

Cultured,  knightly,  aristocratic,  kind  to  the  humble,  humorous  ; 
a  pleasing  letter-writer  ;  personally  magnetic  ;  a  lover  of 
nature  ;  a  keen  observer  of  men  and  things.  Lowell,  like 
Bryant  and  Holmes,  had  a  special  fondness  for  trees.  (See 
poems,  "Under  the  October  Maples,"  "The  Birch-tree," 
"The  Oak,"  "A  Mood,"  "  To  a  Pine-Tree.") 

"  I  in  June  am  midway  to  believe 
A  tree  among  my  far  progenitors, 
Such  sympathy  is  mine  with  all  the  race." 

Under  The  Willows. 

"  To  his  family  and  near  friends,  he  was  the  most  delightful 
and  sunshiny  being  that  ever  came  from  the  Author  of  joy." 
In  politics,  an  Independent  Eepublican. 
Lowell  carried  out  his  own  injunction,  — 

"  The  epic  of  a  man  rehearse, 

Be  something  better  than  thy  verse." 
Appearance. 

Eobust    and  vigorous.       "  A    broad-shouldered,     full-bearded, 
strong,   and    cheery   Anglo-Saxon."      Sinewy  and    active. 
Chestnut  hair  and  beard.     Eyes  reflecting  his  moods.     Fine 
facial  expression.     Fastidious  in  his  toilet. 
Voice  and  Speech. 

"  His  voice  had  as  great  fascination  for  me  as  his  face.  The 
vibrant  tenderness  and  crisp  clearness  of  the  tones,  the 
perfect  modulation,  the  clear  enunciation,  the  exquisite  ac 
cent,  the  elect  diction,  —  these  were  the  graces  of  one  from 
whose  tongue  our  rough  English  came  as  music,  such  as  I 
should  never  hear  from  any  other. 

"  In  his  speech  there  was  nothing  of   our  slipshod  American 
slovenliness,  but  a  truly  Italian  conscience,  and  an  artistic 
sense  of  beauty  in  the  instrument." — W.  D.  HOWELLS. 
Surviving  Brother. 

K.  T.  S.  Lowell,  an  Episcopal  clergyman  at  Schenectady,  N.Y., 
and  author  of  several  works  of  fiction. 

Only  Surviving  Child. 

A  daughter,  Mrs.  Edward  Burnett. 


APPELLATIONS.  243 


APPELLATIONS. 

A  TYPICAL,  NEW  ENGLAND  PROTESTANT. 

THE  CAMBRIDGE  APOLLO. 
jr  OUR  FINEST  REPRESENTATIVE  MAN  OF  LETTERS. 

THE  LITERARY  EDUCATOR  OF  AMERICA. 

AN  EARNEST  ADVOCATE  OF  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN. 

THK  AUTHOR  OF  THE  AMERICAN  HUDIBRAS. 
,.  A  POET  OF  OUT-OF-DOORS  AND  OF  TO-DAY. 

THE  SONGSTER  OF  ELMWOOD. 

THE   BEST-LAUNCHED  POET  OF  His  TIME. 

OUR  POET-AMBASSADOR. 
y  THE  SCHOLAR  IN  POLITICS. 

THE  MILTON  OF  AN  EPOCH  WHICH  HAD  IN  LINCOLN  ITS  OLIVER 
CROMWELL. 

THE  MOST    DISTINGUISHED  EDITOR  OF    NEW  ENGLAND  MAG 
AZINES. 

A  CHARACTER-FORMING  POET. 

A  LATTER-DAY  PROPHET. 

A  YANKEE  IDYLLIST. 
-  OUR  FOREMOST  CRITIC. 
x  PRIZE  POET  OF  THE  VERNACULAR. 

THE  BLITHEST,  MOST  UNSTUDIED  SONGSTER  ON  THE   OLD   BAY 
SHORE. 

DISPERSER  OF  THE  ANCESTRAL  [Puritan]  GLOOM. 

THE  MATTHEW  ARNOLD  OF  AMERICA. 

OUR  NEW  THEOCRITUS. 

THE  FINE  FLOWER  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

POET  OF  FREEDOM,  OF  NATURE,  AND  OF  HUMAN  NATURE. 

A  POET  OF  THE  ETERNAL  MYSTERY  OF  LIFE  AND  DEATH. 


PSEUDONYMS. 
HOMER  WILBUR.  HOSEA  BIGLOW. 


244  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WETTINGS. 

General  Comments. 

"Lowell's  range  of  poetry  is  phenomenal,  from  The  Biglow  Papers 
to  '  She  Came  and  Went.'  " 

"His  poetry  has  the  strength,  the  tenderness,  and  the  defects  of  the 
Down-East  temper."  —  E.  C.  STEDMAN. 

"  He  was  intimately  in  touch  with  his  social  surroundings,  and 
always  needed  some  outside  impulse  of  sympathy  or  indignation 
to  call  out  his  hest  powers." 

"  With  Lowell,  poetry  was  the  utterance  of  fortunate  moments, 
rather  than  the  passion  of  a  lifetime." 

"His  political  and  moral  convictions  appear  chiefly  in  his  verse. 
His  prose,  with  the  exception  of  some  graceful  sketch-work,  bits 
of  travel,  and  reminiscence,  has  heen  restricted  to  criticism." 

"  It  does  me  good  to  see  a  poet  who  knows  a  bird  or  flower  as  one 
friend  knows  another,  yet  loves  it  for  itself  alone."  —  STEDMAN. 

"  He  never  lost  the  youthful  thrill  at  being  out-of-doors." 

Howells  speaks  of  "  the  constant  glow  of  Lowell's  incandescent 

sense." 
His  Own  Characterization  of  His  Poetry. 

"  There's  Lowell,  who's  striving  Parnassus  to  climb 
With  a  whole  bale  of  isms  tied  together  with  rhyme ; 
He  might  get  on  alone,  spite  of  brambles  and  boulders, 
But  he  can't  for  the  bundle  he  has  on  his  shoulders. 
The  top  of  the  hill  he  will  ne'er  come  near  reaching 
Till  he  learns  the  distinction  'twixt  singing  and  preaching; 
His  lyre  has  some  chords  that  would  ring  pretty  well, 
But  he'd  rather  by  half  make  a  drum  of  the  shell, 
And  rattle  away  till  he's  as  old  as  Methusalem, 
At  the  head  of  a  march  to  the  last  new  Jerusalem. 

Fable  for  Critics. 

POETRY. 

e  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal. 
The  Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail. 
Two  pairs  of  pictures,  Summer  and  Winter. 


NOTES    ON  II IS    WHITINGS.  245 

"  Lowell  is  par  excellence  the  poet  of  June,  as  Bryant  is  of  autumn." 

—  F.  L.  PATTEE. 

Exquisitely  artistic.     Lowell's  most  popular  poem. 
It  "transcribes  the  mysticism  of  the  past  into  the  vital  charity  of 

the  present." 

"A  frenzy  of  creative  impulse." 
Written  in  forty-eight  hours,  —  no  food  or  sleep. 
Several  illustrated  editions  have  been  published. 

The  Fable  for  Critics. 

Appeared  anonymously.     Begun  without  thought  of  publication. 
"A  humorous  yet  just  characterization  of  contemporary  authors." 
"  One  hardly  knows  whether  to  be  more  amazed  at  the  audacity  or 

the  brilliancy  of  this  elaborate  Jew  d' esprit."  —  UNDERWOOD. 
"  Written  in  the  '  touch-and-go '  style." 
"Fantastic  prose  preface." 

Courage  to  praise  Whittier  and  Theodore  Parker. 
Women  portrayed. 

Miranda.      Margaret  Fuller. 

Philoclea.    Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child. 
An  edition  with  outline  portraits  of  the  authors  mentioned  in  the 

poem  has  been  published. 

The  Present  Crisis. 

Published  anonymously,  and  at  first  attributed  to  Whittier. 
The  "  crisis  "  was  that  created  by  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
Note  the  "  long,  leaping  metre." 

Incident  in  a  Railroad  Car. 

The  effect  of  Burns's  poetry  upon  laboring  men. 

The  Biglow  Papers. 

(Consult  its  analysis  by  Haweis  and  by  Underwood.) 
"  A  masterpiece  in  wit,  scholarship,  and  penetrating  knowledge." 
"  Lowell  reached  in  this  the  high  water  mark  of  American  humor." 
"  From  this  time  on,  it  was  respectable  to  be  on  the  side  of  free 
dom." 

"An  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  world's  literature." 
"  Its  dialect  suggests  the  Ayrshire  dialect  of  Burns  in  its  keenness 

and  suppleness." 

"Every  couplet  contains  some  felicitous  absurdity  or  hard  hit." 
"Never  sprang  the  flower  of  art  from  more  unpromising  soil." 
"  The  accompanying  prose  is  often  as  amusing  and  as  brilliant  as  the 
verse." 


246  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

First  Series.    1846.    The  Mexican  War. 

First  published  in  The  Boston  Courier. 
Second  Series.    1867.     The  Civil  War. 

Exceeded  the  first  in  power. 
Written  hy  "  Hosea  Biglow,"  a  typical  Yankee. 
Edited  by  "  Parson  Wilbur,"  a  "  deliciously  humorous  and  absurdly 

learned  character." 
Charles  Sumner  admired  The  Biglov)  Papers,  but  wished  that  their 

author  "could  have  used  good  English." 

"The  future  student  of  American  literature  will  be  ever  grateful 
for  this  preservation  of  the  Yankee  dialect  by  New  England's 
greatest  poet."  —  MRS.  WRIGHT. 
Harvard  Commemoration  Ode.     1865. 

Dedicated  "to  the  ever  sweet  and  shining  memory  of  the  ninety- 
three  sons  of  Harvard  College  who  have  died  for  their  country." 
The  classic  poem  of  our  Civil  War. 

"  Deep  comprehension  of  the  greatness  of  the  struggle,  magnanimity 
in  victory,  the  solemn  memory  of  the  dead,  admiration  of  their 
heroic  valor  and  self-sacrifice,  and  the  lofty  patriotic  resolve 
that  their  death  shall  not  have  been  vain,  mark  the  ode  as  the 
one  great  poem  which  the  war  evoked." 
"  The  best  American  poem  of  occasion." 
"  The  most  noble  and  massive  of  American  lyrics." 
"  The  ode  is  no  smooth-cut  block  from  Pentelicus,  but  a  mass  of 
rugged    quartz,   beautiful  with    prismatic  crystals,  and  deep- 
veined  here  and  there  with  virgin  gold."  —  STEDMAN. 
Contains  a  fine  portrait  of  Lincoln.     (Memorize  the  lines.) 
His  friend,  William  Wetmore  Story,  came  from  Rome  to  be  present 

on  the  occasion  of  its  reading. 
Delivered  near  the  college  grounds,  after  an  address  by  General 

Meade,  the  hero  of  Gettysburg. 

Lowell  lost  three  favorite  nephews  in  the  war,  and  another  relative, 
Colonel  Shaw,  who  led  the  colored  troops  in  the  assault  on  Fort 
Wagner. 

"  Wut's  words  to  them  whose  faith  and  truth 
On  War's  red  techstone  rang  true  metal, 
Who  ventured  life  an'  love  an'  youth 

For  the  gret  prize  o'  death  in  battle  ? 
To  him  who,  deadly  hurt,  agen 

Flashed  on  afore  the  charge's  thunder, 
Tippin'  with  fire  the  bolt  of  men 

Thet  rived  the  Rebel  line  asunder  ?  " 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WEITINGS.  247 

Other  National  Poems. 

The  Concord  Ode.    The  Centennial  Ode.    Under  the  Old  Elm. 
The  Cathedral. 

A  philosophical  poem. 

Suggested  by  a  visit  to  Chartres, 

Written  in  blank  verse. 

"  A  poem  worthy  of  Browning." 
Poems  to  His  Wife. 

My  Love,  Sonnets,  The  Dead  House,  After  the  Burial. 

Legend  of  Brittany. 

Pronounced  by  Poe,  when  it  appeared,  the  noblest  poem  yet  written 

by  an  American. 

Written  in  the  Ottava  Eima.     (See  Analysis  of  Versification.) 
The  Courtin'. 

"  This  bucolic  idyl  is  without  a  counterpart.     No  richer  juice  can  be 

pressed  from  the  wild  grape  of  Yankee  soil." 
Written  to  fill  a  vacant  page  in  The  Biglow  Papers. 

Fitz  Adam's  Story. 

An  incomplete  poem.    The  first  of  a  series  of  Chaucerian  tales,  to 

be  called  "Nooning." 
Extreme  Unction. 

"  This  poem  changed  my  life."  —  W.  T.  STEAD. 
Ambrose. 

A  beautiful  legend,  that  teaches  forcibly  the  lesson  of  religious 

toleration. 
Rhoecus. 

"  Almost  Grecian  in  its  perfect  art." 

Hunger  and  Cold. 

A  "  revolutionary  poem." 
The  most  democratic  erf  Lowell's  writings. 
The  First  Snow-Fail. 

"  Print  that  as  if  you  loved  it.    Let  not  a  comma  be  blundered.  .  .  . 
May  you  never  have  the  key  which  shall  unlock  the  whole  meaning 

of  the  poem  to  you."  —  Letter  to  Sydney  Gay  from  Lowell. 
Other  Lyrics  of  Grief.    Threnodia.    The  Changeling.    Auf  Wieder- 

sehen.     After  the  Burial.    The  Dead  House. 
Beaver  Brook. 

A  landscape  poem,  "rich  enough  in  its  suggestions  to  serve  as  an 
object-lesson  upon  poetic  art."  — UNDEKWOOD. 


248  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

"The  brook  is  spiritualized,  and  sets  machinery  going  in  the  brain 

as  well  as  in  the  mill." 
Beaver  Brook  is  a  small  valley  a  few  miles  from  Elmwood,  and  was 

a  favorite  haunt  of  the  poet. 
For  view,  see  Underwood's  Sketch  of  Lowell ;  or,  The  Review  of  Re- 

vieics  for  October,  1891,  p.  309. 

Pictures  from  Appledore. 

Almost  the  only  mention  of  the  ocean  in  Lowell's  poetry. 

Last  Poem. 

My  Brook.     1890.     The  poet  received  $1,000  for  it. 

Compare  Lowell's  two  poems,  "  To  the  Past"  and  "The  Sower,"  with 
Bryant's  poems  of  the  same  titles. 

An  Illustrated  Lowell  Birthday  Book  has  been  issued  by  his  publishers. 

PROSE. 
Principal  Writings.      r~ 

My  Study  Window.  Among  My  Books  (First  and  Second  Series). 
Fireside  Travels. 

These  include  scholarly  monographs  on  Chaucer,  Keats,  Spenser, 
Dante,  Carlyle,  Abraham  Lincoln,  an  interesting  essay  on  Tho- 
reau,  and  other  critical  work.  A  delightfully  ironical  essay  is 
the  one  entitled,  "  On  a  Certain  Condescension  in  Foreigners." 

Fireside  Travels. 

A  series  of  letters  addressed  to  "William  Story,  the  sculptor. 
Called  by  Bryant  the  wittiest  book  ever  written. 

Posthumous  Publications. 

Letters  of  James  Russell  Lowell.    Edited  by  Professor  C.  E.  Norton. 

Latest  Essays  and  Addresses.  (On  Gray,  Some  Letters  of  Walter 
Savage  Landor,  Walton,  Milton's  Areopagitica,  Shakespeare's 
Richard  III.,  The  Study  of  Modern  Languages,  and  The  Progress 
of  the  World.) 

The  Old  English  Dramatists. 

Last  Poems  of  Lowell. 

His  Critical  Writings. 

Scholarly,  sympathetic,  individual,  optimistic.  Lowell  admires  the 
writers  he  criticises.  He  is  rich  in  material,  and  apt  in  figurative 
illustration ;  while  his  views,  taken  from  the  high  standpoint  of 
the  sympathetic  scholar,  are  comprehensive. 

"They  are  at  once  subtle  and  masculine,  independent  and  acute." 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  249 

"  He  seems  not  so  much  to  judge  his  author  as  to  enjoy  him.  His 
perception  is  keen  and  discriminating ;  but  he  is  expressing  emo 
tional  effects  rather  than  intellectual  quality.  Naturally,  there 
fore,  his  essays  are  sometimes  deficient  in  method.  .  .  .  Yet 
that  man  must  he  captious  indeed  who  could  object  to  writing 
so  wise,  witty,  and  gracious.  ...  In  genuine  catholicity  of 
taste,  we  venture  to  think  no  English  critic  of  the  past  century 
has  surpassed  Mr.  Lowell."  —  C.  T.  WINCHESTER. 

A  Characteristic  Utterance.  "  It  is  one  of  the  school-boy  blunders  in 
criticism  to  deny  one  kind  of  perfection  because  it  is  not  another." 

His  Letters. 

Delightful  reading. 

Models  of  epistolary  writing. 

It  has  been  said  that  not  one  of  the  many  communications  sent  by 
Lowell  to  the  government  during  his  years  of  diplomatic  service 
was  devoid  of  literary  merit.  "If  there  were  many  such  de 
spatch-writers,  Blue  Books  would  be  as  popular  as  three-volume 
novels." 

"When  Lowell  was  in  London,  Lord  Granville,  then  foreign  secretary, 
invited  him  to  dine,  and  apologized  in  his  note  for  sending  such 
short  notice  to  "the  most  engaged  man  in  London."  Lowell 
replied,  "'The  most  engaged  man  in  London'  is  very  glad  to 
dine  with  the  most  engaging." 

Extract  from  a  personal  letter:  "I  will  have  two  or  three  quiet 
nooks  into  which  I  can  retreat  from  the  pursuit  of  my  own  title- 
pages.  Let  me  be  just  the  plain  man  to  you,  and  forget  that  I 
ever  took  pen  in  hand  except  to  write  you  a  stupid  letter.  .  .  . 
If  I  did  not  think  that  I  were  better  than  my  books,  I  should 
never  dream  of  writing  another.  But  I  do  dream  of  writing 
many,  and  such,  too,  as  shall  more  fully  express  the  real  and 
whole  me,  and  better  justify  the  opinions  of  those  who  know  me. 
You  are  a  funny  fellow,  and  I  know  you  laugh  at  me  sometimes  ; 
but  you  may  laugh  all  day  long  if  you  will  love  me  at  the  same 
time." 


250  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Lowell. 

"  He  has  set  a  high  example  to  his  fellow-men  of  purity,  manly 
dignity,  faithful  friendship,  and  honorable  service." — CANON 
FARRAR. 
"  Never  have  I  heard  Lowell  utter  a  word  that  would  give  another 

pain."  —  C.  E.  NORTON. 

"His  plentiful  and  original  genius  was  so  rich  that  he  was  never 
compelled,   like  many  writers,   to  hoard  his  thoughts,   or  be 
miserly  with  his  bright  sayings."  —  E.  C.  STEDMAN. 
"In  British  estimation  Lowell  was  the  man  who  most  nearly  united 
the  literature  and  thought  of  the,  two  great  Anglo-Saxon  na 
tions." 
"All  the  great  gifts  that  lavish  nature  gave 

By  study,  culture,  art,  were  trained  and  formed  — 
As  scholar,  critic,  poet  —  gay  or  grave  — 
The  world  to  thee  with  heart  responsive  warmed." 

W.  W.  STORY. 
"  Great  in  his  simple  love  of  flower  and  bird, 

Great  in  the  statesman's  art, 
He  has  been  greatest  in  his  lifting  word 

To  every  human  heart." 

SARAH  K.  BOLTON. 

" O  Lowell!  I  first  gave  to  thee 
My  boyhood's  love  and  loyalty. 
My  youth  took  fire  at  thy  words, 
And  thou  my  manhood's  spirit  stirred 
To  lofty  faith  and  noble  trust." 

MINOT  J.  SAVAGE. 
Whittier's  verses  on  Lowell.     1891. 

W.  W.  Story's  poem.  Blackwood's  Magazine,  November,  1891,  and 
The  Critic,  Oct.  10,  1891. 

O.  W.  Holmes's  "At  a  Birthday  Festival,"  Feb.  22, 1859,  and  "  Memo 
rial  Poem."  (The  last  appeared  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
October,  1891.) 

See  The  Literary  World,  June  27,  1885. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  251 

His  Publishers  for  Thirty  Years. 

One  house ;  now  Houghton,  Mifflin,  and  Company. 
His  Voracious  Reading. 

Lowell  could  read  continuously  for  twelve  hours,  and  retain  what  he 
read.    In  one  of  his  letters,  he  calls  himself  "the  last  of  the 
great  readers." 
"He  has  profited  by  the  literatures  of  all  nations,  but  he  has  been 

the  disciple  of  no  one  literary  master." 
"Lowell  read  classical  literature  four  hours  a  day,  and  paid  little 

attention  to  the  newspapers." 
Lowell  on  Literary  Style. 

"That  exquisite  something  called  style,  which  makes  itself  felt  by 
the  skill  with  which  it  effaces  itself,  and  masters  us  at  last  with 
a  sense  of  indefinable  completeness." 
His  Introduction  to  Tennyson's  Poems. 

Lowell  first  became  acquainted  with  Tennyson's  poems  through  a 
copy  brought  by  Emerson  from  his  first  visit  to  Carlyle,  in  1848, 
and  circulated  among  his  Harvard  friends. 

Lowell  in  Conversation. 

"His  habitual  manner  had  a  mellow,  autumnal  glow.  His  serious 
conversation  was  suggestive  and  inspiring,  and  a  sense  of  uplift 
ing  followed,  as  from  seeing  a  play  of  Shakespeare,  or  hearing 
a  symphony  of  Beethoven.  But  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
repress  the  bright  fancies  and  droll  conceits  suggested  by  read 
ing  and  conversation.  Wit  was  as  natural  to  him  as  breathing. 
.  .  .  But  epigrams  and  puns  were  the  accompaniments,  and 
not  the  end  and  aim,  of  his  conversation:  his  perceptions  were 
keen  and  just;  his  reading  had  been  well-nigh  universal;  and, 
witli  his  instant  power  of  comparison,  his  judgments  were  lifte 
intuitions.  His  discourse  often  took  on  an  airy  and  tantalizing 
form,  and  wreathed  itself  in  irony,  or  flowered  in  simile,  or  ex 
ploded  in  artifices,  until  it  ended  in  some  merry  absurdity. 
Such  play  of  argument,  fancy,  humor,  word-twisting,  and  spark 
ling  nonsense  was  seldom  witnessed,  except  in  the  talk  of  the 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table."  —  F.  H.  UNDERWOOD. 

A  Lover  of  Nature  and  of  Man. 

"  Throughout  his  prose  we  find  the  same  feeling  for  nature,  and  love 
for  humanity,  that  distinguish  his  poetry.  His  whole  literary 
career  was  but  an  outgrowth  of  his  own  broad,  sympathetic, 
genial  nature,  interwoven  with  the  acquirements  of  the  scholar." 
—  MRS.  WRIGHT. 


252  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

American  Men  of  Letters  who  have  known  Diplomatic  Service. 

John  Lothrop  Motley,  George  Bancroft,  George  P.  Marsh,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  Bayard  Taylor,  James  Russell  Lowell,  Bret  Harte, 
Francis  H.  Underwood,  John  Bigelow. 

Lowell  and  His  Literary  Compeers. 

"He  had  more  virility  and  mass  than  Longfellow,  homelier  philoso 
phy  and  more  musical  utterance  than  Emerson,  finer  literary 
sense  than  Whittier,  warmer  human  sympathies  than  Haw 
thorne,  loftier  and  more  serious  imagination  than  Holmes."  — 
C.  T.  WINCHESTER. 

His  Service  to  American  Literature. 

"  Of  Lowell's  service  in  strengthening  and  broadening  our  literature 
in  the  critical  period  of  its  development,  too  much  cannot  be 
said.  As  editor  during  an  important  epoch  of  The  Atlantic 
Monthly,  —  the  mouthpiece  of  the  most  remarkable  group  of 
authors  that  our  nation  has  produced,  —  and  later  as  editor  of 
The  North  American  Review,  he  had  a  chance  which  is  pre 
sented  to  few  literary  men.  His  impress  on  the  literary  product 
of  the  period  is  everywhere  visible.  There  are  but  few  of  the 
younger  school  of  writers  who  did  not  receive  their  first  impetus 
from  a  kind  word  of  criticism  or  encouragement  from  this  zealous 
builder  of  American  literature."  —  F.  L.  PATTEE. 


JOHN   aREENLEAF    WHIT  TIER. 


JOHN  GREENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

LYRIST,  REFORMER,  EDITOR,  PREACHER. 


EXTRACTS. 

THEN  of  what  is  to  be,  and  of  what  is  done, 

Why  queriest  thou  ? 
The  past  and  the  time  to  be  are  one, 

And  both  are  now. 

MY  SOUL  AND  I. 

YET  Love  will  dream,  and  Faith  will  trust, 
(Since  He  who  knows  our  need  is  just,) 
That  somehow,  somewhere,  meet  we  must. 

SNOWBOUND. 

LIFE  is  ever  lord  of  Death, 
And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own. 

IBID. 

FOR  still  in  mutual  sufferance  lies 

The  secret  of  true  living ; 
Love  scarce  is  love  that  never  knows 

The  sweetness  of  forgiving. 

AMONG  THE  HILLS. 

FOR  of  all  sad  words  of  tongue  or  pen, 
The  saddest  are  these  :  It  might  have  been. 

MAUD  MULLER. 
255 


256  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

BLESSINGS  on  thee,  little  man, 
Barefoot  boy,  with  cheek  of  tan  ! 

THE  BAREFOOT  BOY. 

DEAR  FRIEND  !  thy  gift  of  love  has  brought 

More  than  thy  early  spring  to  me  ; 
And  words,  to  thank  thee  as  I  ought, 

Should  all  of  bloom  and  fragrance  be. 

( Written  to  a  colored  friend  in  the  South  upon  the 
receipt  of  some  early  spring  flowers.) 

BE  near  me  in  my  hours  of  need 
To  soothe,  or  cheer,  or  warm ; 
And  down  the  slopes  of  sunset  lead 

As  up  the  hills  of  morn  ! 

MY  BIRTHDAY. 

WITH  warning  hand  I  mark  Time's  rapid  flignt, 
From  life's  glad  morning  to  its  solemn  night, 

Yet  through  the  dear  God's  love  I  also  show 
There's  light  above  me  by  the  shade  below. 

INSCRIPTION  ON  A  SUN-DIAL. 

AND  thou,  0  Lord  !  by  whom  are  seen 

Thy  creatures  as  they  be, 
Forgive  me  if  too  close  I  lean 

My  human  heart  on  thee. 

THE  ETERNAL  GOODNESS. 

"  SHOOT,  if  you  must,  this  old  gray  head, 
But  «pare  your  country's  flag,"  she  said. 

BARBARA  FRIETCHIE. 

No  longer  forward  nor  behind 

I  look  in  hope  or  fear  ; 
But,  grateful,  take  the  good  I  find, 

The  best  of  now  and  here. 

MY  PSALM. 


EXTRACTS.  257 

PRAYERS  of  love  like  raindrops  fall, 

Tears  of  pity  are  cooling  dew ; 
And  dear  to  the  heart  of  our  Lord  are  all 

Who  suffer  like  him  in  the  good  they  do. 

THE  ROBIN. 

WHEN  faith  is  lost,  when  honor  dies, 
The  man  is  dead. 

ICHABOD. 

AND  Heaven's  eternal  years  shall  prove 
That  life  and  death  and  joy  and  pain 

Are  ministers  of  love. 

BETWEEN  THE  GATES. 

OLD  Floyd  Ireson,  for  his  hard  heart, 
Tarred  and  feathered  and  carried  in  a  cart 
By  the  women  of  Marblehead  ! 

SKIPPER  IRESON'S  RIDE. 

THE  pilgrims  of  the  world  went  forth 

Obedient  to  the  word, 
And  found,  where'er  they  tilled  the  earth, 

A  garden  of  the  Lord  ! 

A  LAY  OF  OLD  TIME. 

I  LOVED  the  work :  it  was  its  own  reward. 

It  has  come  to  be 

In  these  long  years  so  much  a  part  of  me, 
I  should  not  know  myself  if  lacking  it, 
But  with  the  work  the  worker  too  would  die, 
And  in  my  place  some  other  self  would  sit 
Joyful  or  sad,  —  what  matters,  if  not  I  ? 

THE  BROTHER  OF  MERCY. 


258  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WH1TTIER. 

HE  lived  to  learn,  in  life's  hard  school, 

How  few  who  pass  above  him 
Lament  their  triumph  and  his  loss, 

Like  her,  —  because  they  love  him. 

IN  SCHOOL-DAYS. 

HE  prayeth  best  who  leaves  unguessed 

The  mystery  of  another's  breast. 

Why  cheeks  grow  pale,  why  eyes  o'erflow, 

Or  heads  are  white,  thou  need'st  not  know. 

Enough  to  note  by  many  a  sign 

That  every  heart  hath  needs  like  thine. 

THE  PKAYEK-SEEKER. 

WHAT,  ho !  our  countrymen  in  chains  ! 

The  whip  on  woman's  shrinking  flesh  ! 
Our  soil  yet  reddening  with  the  stains 

Caught  from  her  scourging,  w%arm  and  fresh  ! 
What !  mothers  from  their  children  riven  ! 
What !  God's  own  image  bought  and  sold  ! 

Americans  to  market  driven, 
And  bartered  as  the  brute  for  gold  ! 

Speak !     Shall  their  agony  of  prayer 

Come  thrilling  to  our  hearts  in  vain  ? 
To  us  whose  fathers  scorned  to  bear 

The  paltry  menace  of  a  chain ; 
To  us,  whose  boast  is  loud  and  long 

Of  holy  Liberty  and  Light ; 
Say,  shall  these  writhing  slaves  of  Wrong 

Plead  vainly  for  their  plundered  Eight  ? 

Ft>LI,EN. 


EXTRACTS.  259 

WE  wait  beneath  the  furnace-blast 

The  pangs  of  transformation ; 
Not  painlessly  doth  God  recast 
And  mould  anew  the  nation. 
Hot  burns  the  fire 
Where  wrongs  expire  ; 
Nor  spares  the  hand 
That  from  the  land 
Uproots  the  ancient  evil. 

"  Em'  FESTE  BURG  IST  UNSEB  GOTT." 

THE   TRAILING  ARBUTUS. 

I  WANDEKED  lonely  where  the  pine-trees  made 
Against  the  bitter  East  their  barricade, 

And,  guided  by  its  sweet 
Perfume,  I  found,  within  a  narrow  dell, 
The  trailing  spring  flower  tinted  like  a  shell 

Amid  dry  leaves  and  mosses  at  my  feet. 

From  under  dead  boughs,  for  whose  loss  the  pines 
Moaned  ceaseless  overhead,  the  blossoming  vines 

Lifted  their  glad  surprise, 

While  yet  the  bluebird  smoothed  in  leafless  trees 
His  feathers,  ruffled  by  the  chill  sea-breeze, 

And  snow-drifts  lingered  under  April  skies. 

As,  pausing,  o'er  the  lonely  flower  I  bent, 

I  thought  of  lives  thus  lowly,  clogged  and  pent, 

Which  yet  find  room, 

Through  care  and  cumber,  coldness  and  decay, 
To  lend  a  sweetness  to  the  ungenial  day, 

And  make  the  sad  earth  happier  for  their  bloom. 


260  JOHN   GEEENLEAF  WH1TTIEE. 

"YESTERDAY  a  strange  thing  happened  in  the  meeting 
house.  The  minister  had  gone  on  in  his  discourse,  until 
the  sand  in  the  hour-glass  on  the  rails  before  the  deacons 
had  well-nigh  run  out,  and  Deacon  Dole  was  about  turn 
ing  it,  when  suddenly  I  saw  the  congregation  about  me 
give  a  great  start  and  look  back.  A  young  woman,  bare 
footed,  and  with  a  coarse  canvas  frock  about  her,  and 
her  long  hair  hanging  loose  like  a  periwig,  and  sprinkled 
with  ashes,  came  walking  up  the  south  aisle.  Just  as 
she  got  near  Uncle  Rawson's  seat  she  stopped,  and,  turn 
ing  round  towards  the  four  corners  of  the  house,  cried 
out :  "  Woe  to  the  persecutors !  Woe  to  them  who  for  a 
pretence  make  long  prayers !  Humble  yourselves,  for  this 
is  the  day  of  the  Lord's  power,  and  I  am  sent  as  a  sign 
among  you  ! "  As  she  looked  toward  me  I  knew  her  to 
be  the  Quaker  maiden,  Margaret  Brewster.  "Where  is 
the  constable  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Richardson.  "  Let  the  woman 
be  taken  out."  Thereupon  the  whole  congregation  arose ; 
and  there  was  a  great  uproar,  men  and  women  climbing 
the  seats,  and  many  crying  out,  some  one  thing  and  some 
another.  In  the  midst  of  the  noise,  Mr.  Sewall,  getting 
up  on  a  bench,  begged  the  people  to  be  quiet,  and  let 
the  constable  lead  out  the  poor  deluded  creature.  Mr. 
Richardson  spake  to  the  same  effect;  and,  the  tumult  a 
little  subsiding,  I  saw  them  taking  the  young  woman  out 
of  the  door;  and,  as  many  followed  her,  I  went  out  also, 
with  my  brother,  to  see  what  became  of  her. 

A  LEAF  FROM  MARGARET  SMITH'S  JOURNAL. 


liEFERENCES.  201 


REFERENCES. 

Samuel  T.  Pickard's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  G.  Whittier. 

W.  J.  Liutoii's  Life  of  Whittier. 

W.  S.  Kennedy's  Life  of  Whittier. 

F.  H.  Underwood's  Biography  of  Whittier. 

Margaret  Sidney's  Whittier  with  the  Children  (Illustrated). 

Mrs.  Claflin's  Personal  Recollections  of  Whittier. 

Mrs.  James  T.  Fields's  Whittier:  Notes  of  his  Life  and  Friendships 
(Illustrated). 

Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 

Stedman-Hutcliinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.    Vol.  VI. 

Stedman's  Poets  of  America. 

Stoddard's  Poets'  Homes. 

Theodore  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 

Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.  II. 

Haverhill's  Memorial  of  Whittier.    1893. 

Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

Miss  Mitford's  Recollections  of  a  Literary  Life. 

E.  P.  Whipple's  Essays  and  Reviews. 

M.  W.  Hazeltine's  Chats  about  Books. 

Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 

Appletons'  Cyclopsedia  of  American  Biography. 

Text-books  of  American  Literature. 

The  Whittier  Number  of  The  Literary  World.    Dec.  17,  1887. 

Scribner's  Monthly.    August,  1879  (Article  by  Stoddard). 

The  Atlantic  Monthly.  March,  18G4.  February,  1874.  November,  1892. 
November,  189i. 

Harper's  Magazine.  January,  1884  (Illustrated).  February,  1883  (Illus 
trated). 

The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser.    Dec.  17,  1877  (Autobiographic  Sketch). 

The  Critic.     Oct.  22,  1892.     Jan.  28,  1893. 

The  New  England  Magazine.  November,  1892  ("In  Whittier's  Land." 
Illustrated.  "Whittier  the  Poet  and  the  Man").  December,  1892 
("Whittier's  First  Printed  Poems."  Illustrated).  June,  1893 
("Personal  Recollections,"  by  Charlotte  Grimke'). 


JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

TJie  Cosmopolitan.    January,  1894     ("Whittier  Desultoria."     Five  por 
traits  of  Whittier). 

NOTES.  — Selections  from  Whittier's  Prose  are  found  in  American  Prose, 
Cleveland's  American  Literature,  Stedman-Hutcliinson's  Library 
of  American  Literature,  Whittier  Leaflets  (Riverside  Literature 
Series). 

For  classifications  of  selected  poems  of  Whittier,  see  Miss  Hodg- 
kins's  Guide  to  the  Study  of  Nineteenth  Century  Authors,  and 
Alfred  S.  Hoe's  American  Authors  and  their  Birthdays. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  263 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

December  17, 1807. 
September  7, 1892. 

REMARK.  —  "Wliittier's  life  was  notably  uneventful. 
Ancestry. 

The  Greenleafs  are  believed  to  have  been  a  Huguenot  family, 

who  left  France  because  of  their  religious  convictions. 
(See  allusions  to  the  name  Greenleaf  in   the  poem  entitled, 

"A  Name.") 
"  Generations     of     God-fearing    ancestors    were    behind    him 

[Whittier]." 
Thomas  "  Whitier,"  the  first  of  the  family  in  America,  was  a 

contemporary  of   George   Fox,   and   had   much   respect  for 

his  doctrines. 
Rev.  Stephen  Bachiler,  a  maternal  ancestor,  founded  the  town 

of  Hampton,  N.H.,  and  was  the  first  minister  settled  there. 
"  It  was  the  Bachiler  eye,  dark,  deep-set,  and  lustrous,  which 

marked  the  cousinship  that  existed  between  Daniel  Webster 

and  John  Greenleaf  Whittier." 

Name. 

Spelled  in  the  old  records  in  thirty-two  different  ways. 
Original  form  probably  Feuillevert. 

Birthplace. 

East  Haverhill,  Essex  Co.,  Mass.,  the  neighborhood  of  Hannah 
Dustin's  heroic  deed. 

"  Haverhill  is  the  pleasantest  village  I  ever  passed  through."  — 
GEOIJGE  WASHINGTON. 

The  Merrimack,  Wliittier's  River  of  Song. 

Homestead  two  hundred  years  old.  Built  by  Thomas  Whit 
ier. 

Described  in  tiiww-Bowid  and  in  "The  Fish  I  didn't  Catch" 
(prose). 


264  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

Home  often  visited  by  wanderers  of  varying  characters.  See 
sketch,  "  Yankee  Gypsies,"  among  Whittier's  prose  writings. 

Now  open  to  the  public  at  all  times. 

It  contains  Whittier's  historic  desk  and  many  other  souvenirs 
of  the  poet. 

For  views,  see  Kennedy's  Whittier,  Underwood's  Whittier,  Pick- 
ard's  Whittier,  Vol.  I.,  and  The  New  England  Magazine  for 
November,  1892. 

A  mile  from  the  home  is  Lake  Kenoza  (Indian  word  for  "  pick 
erel  "),  named  by  Whittier,  and  alluded  to  in  his  poetry. 

See  The  New  England  Magazine,  July,  1890  ("  Old  Haverhill." 
Illustrated);  Scribner's  Magazine,  September,  1872. 

Father. 

"  Quaker  Whycher."     A  rough,  decisive,  sterling  character. 
Taciturn.     "  No  breath  our  father  wasted." 

Mother. 

Lovable,  religious,  kind-hearted. 

Read  the  poet's  characterizations  of  his  parents  and  sisters  in 

Snow-Bound. 

She  taught  her  children  the  Bible  on  "  First-day  "  afternoons. 
For  woodcut  of  her  face,  see  Underwood's  Whittier,  p.  48;  also, 

Pickard's  Whittier,  Vol.  II. 

Education.     (Non-collegiate.) 

The  Bible.     Burns's  Poems.     (A  copy  was  given  to  the  boy  by 
his   schoolmaster.)     The  "  Davideis,"  a  poem  by  Ellwood, 
Milton's  Quaker  friend. 
Read  Whittier's  poem  on  Burns. 

"  There  were  not  a  dozen  books  in  my  fathers  library." 
"  I  had  in  my  childhood  a  great  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  little 

means  to  gratify  it." 

For  an  article  on  Whittier's  boyhood,  see    St.  Nicholas,   Octo 
ber,  1887. 
School  in  Haverhill,  taught  by  Joshua  Coffin,  later  the  historian 

of  Newbury. 

See  the  poems,  "  In  School  Days,"  and  "  To  My  Old  School 
master." 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  265 

The  building  is  now  standing  ;  for  a  view  of  it  as  in  the 
poet's  boyhood,  consult   Kennedy's   Whittier,  Harper's 
Magazine    for   February,    1883,    or    Margaret    Sidney's 
Whittier  with  the  Children. 
Two  Years  at  Haverhill  Academy. 

Tuition  paid  by  money  earned  in  making  ladies'  slippers  at 
twenty-five  cents  a  pair.  (Compare  Whittier's  poem, 
"  The  Shoemakers,"  and  the  kindred  production, 
"  Work,"  of  his  friend,  Lucy  Larcom.) 

An  omnivorous  reader. 
Dedicatory  Ode,  written  for  the  new  academy  building  in  1827. 

Religion. 

That  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 

The  "  Inner  Light  "  glorified  his  whole  life. 

For  view  of  the  Friends'  meeting-house  in  Amesbury,  fre 
quented  by  the  poet  in  his  youth,  and  again  during  the 
years  of  his  Amesbury  life,  see  The  New  England  Magazine 
for  November,  1892. 

First  Printed  Poems. 

In  The  Newburyport  Free  Press,  June,  1826. 

"  The  Exile's    Departure."      Sent  by  his  sister  without    the 

writer's  knowledge. 
"  The  Deity."     Founded  on  1  Kings  xix.  11,  12. 

("The  turning-point  in  Whittier's  career.") 
For  fac-similes  of  the  two  poems,  look  in  The  New  England 

Magazine  for  December,  1892. 
Written  at  the  age  of  eighteen. 
The  first  poem  signed  with  the  author's  full  name  was  "  The 

Outlaw,"  printed  in  The  Haverhill  Gazette,  Oct.  28,  1828. 
NOTE.  —  Whittier  wrote  verses  as  soon  as  he  could  write  at  all, 

and  was  often  forced  to  use  chalk  and  charcoal  when  pen 

and  ink  failed  him. 

Friendship  with  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

Garrison's  call  to  look  up  his  new  contributor  to  The  Press. 
The  father  discouraged  the  cultivation  of  the  boy's  talent,  and 
said  to  his  caller,  "  Poetry  will  not  give  him  bread."     (Read 


266  JOHN   GEEENLEAF   WUITTIER. 

the  statement  relating  to  the  poet's  will,  under  Miscellaneous 

Notes. ) 

Joint  newspaper  work. 
Through  the  reformer's  influence,  Whittier's  verse  became  "  the 

mallet  of  Thor." 
Garrison  was  released  from  his  imprisonment  at  Baltimore  by 

Whittier's  appeal  to  Henry  Clay,  which  called  forth  Arthur 

Tappan's  effectual  response. 
Consult   Oliver   Johnson's  Garrison  and  His    Times  (Whittier 

wrote  the  introduction  to  this  biography),  and  The  Life  of 

Garrison  by  his  Children. 

Read  Whittier's  poems,  "  To  W.  L.  G."  and  "  Garrison." 
Teaches  a  District  School. 
Farm  Life  at  Home  in  Haverhill. 

Inspired  his  pathetic  ballad,   "  Telling  the  Bees."     (European 

tradition  among  the  peasant  people  of  inviting  the  bees  to 

share  in  the  family  joys  and  sorrows. ) 

Advocacy   of  Abolition,    involving  the   sacrifice  of  early  political 

ambition. 

Many  and  vigorous  poems,  "bugle-blasts  in  the  van  of  freedom." 
"  The  poetry  was  genuine,  as  the  wrath  was  terrific." 
A  signer  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Declaration  of  1833.     (Massachu 
setts'  youngest  delegate  to  the  Philadelphia  Convention. ) 
He  was  prouder  of  this  fact  than  of  all  his  verse. 
Secretary  of  the  National  Anti-Slavery  Association.     1836. 
Editor  of  anti-slavery  journals. 
Persecutions. 

Mobbed   in   Concord,   N.H.,   1835,   when  in  company  with 
George  Thompson,  the  English  Abolitionist.     (The  same 
night  his  sister  Elizabeth  helped  an  Abolitionist,  Samuel 
J .  May,  to  escape  from  a  mob  in  Haverhill. ) 
"  I  understand  how  St.  Paul  felt  when  he  was  thrice  stoned." 
Philadelphia  office  sacked  and  burned.     1839. 
"  He  made  himself  the  champion  of  the  slave  when  to  say 
aught  against  the  national  curse  was  to  draw  upon  one's 
self  the  bitterest  hatred,  loathing,  and  contempt  of  the 
great  majority  of  men  throughout  the  land." 


OUTLINE   OF  lUS  LIFE.  267 

"  For  twenty  years  I  was  shut  out  from  the  favor  of  book 
sellers  and  magazine  editors;  but  I  was  enabled  by  rigid 
economy  to  live  in  spite  of  them,  and  to  see  the  end  of 
the  infernal  institution  that  proscribed  ine.  Thank  God 
for  it." 

His  Counsel  to  a  Young  Friend.  "  My  lad,  if  thou  wouldst 
win  success,  join  thyself  to  some  unpopular  but  noble 
cause." 

Consult  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  Slave-Power  in  America. 

Representative  to  the  Massachusetts  State  Legislature.     1835. 

Journalistic    Life  in    Haverhill,    Boston,     Hartford,   Philadelphia, 

Washington. 

Editor  of  The  Pennsylvania  Freeman.     1838,  1839. 
Editor  of  The  National  Era,  Washington,  which  also  championed 

the  principles  of  Abolition.     Twelve  years. 
Contributors  to  his  paper.     Lucy  Larcom,  the  Gary  Sisters, 

Mrs.  Stowe,  Grace  Greenwood,  Mrs.  Southworth. 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  was  first  published  as  a  serial  in  this 

paper,  1850.     The  Novel  of  Abolition. 
"  Randolph  of  Roanoke,"   one  of  Whittier's  best  political 

poems,  appeared  in  the  first  issue  of  The  Era'. 
Hawthorne's    story,    "The   Great    Stone  Face,"   was    first 
printed  in  this  paper,  Jan.  24,  1850;  and  its  author  re 
ceived  twenty-five  dollars  for  it. 

Presidential  Elector.     1848. 

A  Contributor  to  The  Atlantic  Monthly  from  its  beginning. 

Banquet   tendered    him   by    its   publishers    on   his    seventieth 

birthday. 
Member  of  the  Atlantic  Club  (Saturday  Club),  Boston. 

Life  in  Amesbury,  Mass.,  with  his  sister  Elizabeth.     1840-1864. 
Their  mutual  devotion  was  a  counterpart  to  that   of   Charles 

Lamb  and  his  sister  Mary,  of  Wordsworth  and  his  sister 

Dorothy. 
Elizabeth  Whittier  was  "one  of  the  rarest  of  women,"  and  her 

brother's  complement  in  both  temperament  and  intellect. 


268  JOHN   GEEANLEAF   WHITT1ER. 

Semi-Invalidism. 

Of  many  years'  duration. 

Whittier  was  a  victim  to  severe  headaches,  and  for  many  years 
was  rarely  able  to  write  more  than  half  an  hour  at  a  time. 
He  attributed  his  delicate  health  to  the  method  of  "  toughen 
ing"  the  constitution  by  exposure  to  cold,  common  when  he 
was  a  boy. 

Death  of  Sister. 

The  greatest  sorrow  in  the  poet's  life. 

See  his  poem,  "To  My  Sister,"  the  beautiful  tribute  in  Snow- 
Bound,  his  "  Last  Eve  of  Summer,"  and  "  The  Vanishers." 

She  had  been  his  "most  intimate  and  confidential  literary 
friend."  "  He  had  for  many  years  at  his  own  fireside  the 
concentrated  wit  and  sympathy  of  all  womankind  in  this 
sister." 

Elizabeth  Whittier  also  had  poetical  talent.  Nine  of  her  poems 
were  published  with  some  of  her  brother's  in  his  collection, 
Hazel  Blossoms. 

His  niece  and  adopted  daughter,  Elizabeth,  presided  over  the 
Amesbury  home  after  the  death  of  her  aunt,  until  her 
marriage. 

Whittier  lived  twenty  years  deprived  of  all  companionship  of 

immediate  family  relatives. 
Meets  Dom  Pedro,  Emperor  of  Brazil,  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of 

his  writings. 

Closing  Years  at  Oak  Knoll,  Danvers,  Mass.,  with  a  cousin,  Mrs. 

Johnson,  and  her  family. 
For  a  description  of  the  spot,  see  Pickard's  Whittier,  Vol.  II. 

pp.  G14-616. 

"  I  could  not  help  a  feeling  of  loneliness,  thinking  of  having 
outlived  so  many  of  my  life  companions  [after  the  birthday, 
1888] ;  but  I  was  still  grateful  to  God  that  I  had  not  outlived 
my  love  for  them,  and  for  those  still  living." 

"I  sit  alone  and  watch  the  warm,  sweet  day 

Lapse  tenderly  away; 
And  wistful,  with  a  feeling  of  forecast, 
I  ask,  '  Is  this  the  last  ? '  " 

The  Last  Eve  of  Summer  (1890). 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  269 

Receives  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  Harvard  University. 

1886. 

Eightieth  Birthday. 

Marked  by  the  receipt  of  a  thousand  letters,  messages,  and  gifts 
from  loving  and  admiring  friends,  many  of  which  came  from 
colored  schools  in  the  South. 

Death  at  Hampton  Falls,  N.H.,  at  the  home  of  Miss  Gove,  daughter 
of  the  "  friend"  in  the  poem,  "A  Friend's  Burial." 

Last  Utterance.     "Love  to  all  the  world." 

For  a  view  of  the  house,  see  Mrs.  Fields's  Whittier,  and  Pickard's 
Life  of  Whittier,  Vol.  II. 

In  the  vicinity  had  been  laid  the  scenes  of  "  The  New  Wife 
and  The  Old,"  "Hampton  Beach,"  "The  Wreck  of  River- 
mouth,"  and  others  of  his  poems. 
Buried  in  the  Friends'  Cemetery,  Amesbury. 

The  service  was  held  in  the  garden  behind  his  home,  and,  by 
the  poet's  request,  in  accordance  with  the  simple  forms  of 
the  Quakers.  Lucy  Larcom  read  "The  Vanishers,"  the  first 
poem  written  by  Whittier  after  his  sister's  death. 

A  song  was  chanted  by  the  three  surviving  members  of  the 
Hutchinson  family,  the  Singers  of  Abolition. 

For  a  description,  see  Pickard's  Whittier,  Vol.  II.,  and  The 
New  England  Magazine  for  January,  1893  ;  for  a  view  of 
the  resting-place,  consult  the  same  magazine  for  November, 
1892.. 

The  poet  lies  beside  the  loved  ones  immortalized  in  Snow- 
Bound. 

Literary  Executor. 

Samual  T.  Pickard,  editor  of  The  Portland  Transcript,  and 
Whittier' s  nephew  by  marriage. 

A  Nephew,  a  brother's  son,  is  the  only  surviving  relative  bearing 
the  poet's  name. 

Autobiographic  Glimpses. 

Snow-Bound.  "In  School  Days."  "The  Barefoot  Boy." 
"  Remembrance."  "An  Autograph."  "My  Namesake." 
" To  My  Old  Schoolmaster."  "At  Eventide."  "  The  Anti- 


270  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

Slavery  Convention  of  1833"  (The  Atlantic  Monthly,  Feb 
ruary,  1874).  Introduction  to  Oliver  Johnson's  Garrison 
and  His  Times. 

Prominent  Traits  in  His  Character. 

Love  of  freedom  and  of  country.     Moral  fervor.     Faith  in  God. 
Self-effacement.    Appreciation  of  his  contemporaries.    Keen 
enjoyment  of  his  friends.     Fondness  for  children  and  ani 
mals.     Love  of  quiet  and  of  silence.     Tender  sympathy  for 
suffering.     Indifference  to  fame.     Sweetness  of  disposition. 
"  His  noble  simplicity  of  character  is  the  delight  of  all." 
Read  his  description  of  himself  in  The  Tent  on  the  Beach,  and 
in  the  Proem  that  prefaces  his  poetry. 

Appearance. 

That  of  a  Hebrew  prophet. 

Tall,  erect.  Lofty,  dome-like  forehead  ;  "the  upward  and  back 
ward  slope  of  the  head  was  like  that  of  Emerson  and  of 
Walter  Scott."  Olive  complexion,  black  hair. 

Dark,  flashing  eyes,  firm  and  resolute  mouth.  Dignified  car 
riage.  Quaker  costume. 

Manner. 

Kind  and  simple. 

Voice. 

Deep  and  sonorous.  Fuller  and  stronger  in  reading  poetry 
than  at  other  times. 

Habits. 

"  For  forty  years  Whittier  rarely  failed  to  see  the  sun  rise." 
He  never  entered  a  "  play-house."     (A  promise  to  his  mother.) 

His  Friends. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison.  Charles  Sumner.  Bayard  Taylor. 
James  T.  Fields  and  Mrs.  Fields.  Longfellow.  Emerson. 
Holmes.  Celia  Thaxter.  Lucy  Larcom.  Gail  Hamilton. 
Lydia  Maria  Child.  Sarah  Orne  Jewett.  Colonel  Hig- 
ginson. 


APPELLATIONS.  271 


APPELLATIONS. 

THE  LAUREATE  OF  ABOLITION. 
THE  WOODTIIKUSII  OF  ESSEX. — Ilolmes. 
THE  QUAKER  POET. 
THE  PEOPLE'S  POET. 
OUR  CHIEF  BUCOLIC  POET. 
THE  POET  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  HISTORY. 
THE  HERMIT  OF  AMESBURY.  —  Longfellow. 
THE  POET  OF  THE  MORAL  SENTIMENT. 
THE  BURNS  OF  AMERICA. 
THE  CELIBATE  AND  PROPHETIC  RECLUSE. 
THE  HEBREW  POET  OF  THE  NINETEENTH-  CENTURY. 
THE  HIGH  PRIEST  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 
THE  POET  OF  FAITH. 

THE  POET  OF  FREEDOM.     (Lowell  his  compeer.) 
THE  CHAMPION  OF  RIGHT  AND  THE  ENEMY  OF  WRONG. 
THE  GALAHAD  OF  OUR  TABLE  ROUND. 

A  MODERN  BAYARD,  "WITHOUT  FEAR  AND  WITHOUT  REPROACH." 
THE  BOANERGES  OF  AMERICAN  POETS. 

GENTLEST  AND  TENDEREST  OF  ALL  THE  SONS  OF  THUNDER. 
A  POET  MILITANT  AND  MINISTRANT. 
THE  MARTIAL  QUAKER. 
OUR  MEKBIMAC  TENIERS. 
THE  POET  OF  NEW  ENGLAND'S  MAYFLOWERS. 
THE  BOY  POET  OF  ESSEX  FARM. 
.  THE  POET  OF  THE  BRIGHT  SIDE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE. 
THE  BARD  OF  AN  HISTORIC  TIME. 
OUR  FOREMOST  BALLADIST. 
AMERICA'S  SHOEMAKER  POET. 
THE  PATRON  SAINT  OF  HAVERHILL. 
AN  .ARTIST  IN  LANDSCAPE. 
OUR  POET-POLITICIAN. 


272  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WH1TT1ER. 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WRITINGS. 

His  Poetry. 

Vigorous,  homely,  unstudied,  original. 

Rhyme  and  Metre.  Often  incorrect.  ("I  should  be  hung  for  my 
bad  rhymes  anywhere  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.") 
The  latter  is  but  little  varied ;  the  prevailing  measure  is  the 
iambic  tetrameter  used  in  rhyming  couplets. 

Evoked  largely  by  contemporary  events;  "lacks  the  inherent  ele 
ment  of  perennial  greatness." 

Mainly  lyric  or  descriptive. 

Shows  a  "patriotic,  democratic,  and  humane  spirit." 

"It  has  made  freedom  a  duty  and  religion  a  joy." 

"Whittier  reaches  the  heart  of  the  people  as  a  poet  of  higher 
culture  might  fail  to  do." 

Favorite  Themes.  Witchcraft,  Quakerism,  Slavery,  Indian  tradi 
tions,  New  England  colonial  history. 

Local  Associations  of  his  Poems. 

See  illustrated  articles  in  Harper's  Magazine  for  February,  1883, 
and  The  New  England  Magazine  for  November,  1892  ("In 
"VVhittier's  Land  "). 


Voices  of  Freedom.     1833-1848. 

The  first  poems  that  gave  their  writer  reputation. 
Some  of  the  most  stirring  "  Voices." 

The  Slave  Ships.     Follen.     The  Yankee  Girl.    The  Christian 

Slave.    Massachusetts  to  Virginia. 
Snow-Bound.     1865. 

The  poet's  masterpiece. 

Inspired  by  Emerson's  "  Snow-Storm."     (See  prefatory  lines.) 

Written  "  to  beguile  the  weariness  of  a  sick  chamber,"  the  year  after 

his  sister's  death. 

The  story  covers  three  days  and  two  nights. 
A  New  England  winter  idyl. 
Beautiful,  picturesque,  and  artistic. 
"It  suggests  Burns's  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  Goldsmith's  "Der 

sorted   Village,"  and   Cowper's   "Winter  Evening"   in   "The 

Task." 


NOTflS   ON  HIS    WHITINGS.  273 

Characters.     (Xo  one  of  the  family  survives.) 

The  poet's  parents,  sisters  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  brother  Matthew. 

Uncle,  Moses  Whittier.    Aunt,  Mercy  Hussey. 

Schoolmaster.    A  student  from  Dartmouth  College. 

The  "  half-welcome  guest."    Harriet  Livermcra. 

The  "  Queen  of  Lebanon."    Lady  Hester  Stanhope. 

The  "wise  old  doctor."    Elias  "Weld,  the  family  physician. 
Annotated  Version.    In  American  Poems,  Masterpieces  of  American 

Literature,  and  the  Kiverside  Literature  Series. 
"Whittier  realized  a  profit  of  ten  thousand  dollars  from  the  first  issue 

of  the  poem. 
The  Tent  on  the  Beach. 

An  idyl  of  life  by  the  sea. 
Scene.     Salisbury  Beach. 

Campers.    "Whittier,  Bayard  Taylor,  and  James  T.  Fields. 
Dedicated  to  Mrs.  Fields. 

Contains  descriptions  of  the  beaches  of  Hampton  and  Salisbury. 
Idea.    A  group  of  tales  read  by  "Whittier  to  his  two  friends.     Some 
what  similar  to  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  and  Longfellow's 

Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn. 
The  Best  Poems. 

The  "Wreck  of  Rivermouth.  (Goody  Cole,  the  witch  who 
appears  in  this  ballad,  and  also  in  "The  Changeling,"  was 
Eunice  Cole,  who  lived  in  a  little  hut  in  Hampton,  avoided 
by  all  people.)  The  Brother  of  Mercy.  The  Changeling. 
Abraham  Davenport. 
Its  Sale.  Twenty  thousand  copies  were  quickly  sold,  being  called 

for  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  a  day. 
" "Whittier's  art  culminated  in  'Home  Ballads,'  'Snow-Bound,'  and 

'  The  Tent  on  the  Beach.'  " 
Maud  Muller. 

"Whittier  did  not  like  this  poem  because  it  was  "too  sad." 
The  author  pronounced  the  "  u  "  like  "  u  "  in  cup. 
Mabel  Martin. 

An  amplification  of  "  The  "Witch's  Daughter." 

Note  the  "  Chaucerian  freshness  of  the  opening  stanzas." 

The  house  of  Mabel's  father,  at  Amesbury,  stood  until  a  few  years 

ago.     (For  view  of  the  scene,  consult  Harper's  Magazine,  Feb 
ruary,  1883.) 
Goody  Martin  was  the  only  woman  north  of  the  Merrimack  who 

suffered  death  for  witchcraft. 


274  JOHN   GREENLEAF  WIIITTIER. 

When  it  was  printed  in  book-form,  the  publishers  sent  Whittier  a 

thousand  dollars  for  the  tale. 
"  The  Witch  of  Wenham  "  is  a  companion  tale. 
Skipper  Ireson's  Ride. 

Real  name  of  rider,  Benjamin  Ireson. 

Whittier  unknowingly  deviates  from  facts.     (Consult  John  Chad- 
NX      wick's  article  in  Harper's  Monthly  for  July,  1874.) 
The  refrain  was  originally  written  without  the  use  of  the  Marblehead 

dialect. 

The  story  was  told  Whittier  when  he  was  at  the  Haverhill  Acad 
emy  "bj  a  schoolmate  from  Marblehead ;  the  poem,  begun  at  that 
time,  was  not  finished  until  thirty  years  later. 
The  New  Wife  and  the  Old. 

Founded  on  a  legend  connected  with  the  family  of  General  Moulton 
of  Hampton,  N.  H.,  regarded  by  his  neighbors  as  a  Yankee 
Faust. 
In  School  Days. 

"  You  have  written  the   most   beautiful   school-boy  poem  in  the 

English  language."  —  HOLMES,  to  Whittier. 
Barbara  Frietchie. 

The  best  of  Whittier's  war  lyrics. 

The    incident   was    given    to  the  poet  by  Mrs.   South  worth,   the 

novelist. 
For  a   discussion   of    the   facts,   see   Kennedy's  Life  of   Whittier, 

pp.  240,  241;  and  Pickard's  Whittier,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  454-15G. 
"Inclosed  is  a  check  for  fifty  dollars,  but  Barbara's  weight  should 

be  in  gold." — His  publishers. 
The  Countess. 

One  of  the  poet's  most  beautiful  ballads. 

Scene  laid  in  Rocks  Village,  East  Haverhill. 

Heroine,  Miss  Mary  Ingalls,  a  girl  of  remarkable  beauty. 

She  married  a  French  exile,  Count  de  Vipart,  and  lived  but  a 
year  after  the  marriage.    The  count,  overwhelmed  with  grief, 
returned  to  his  native  land ;  but  later  he  married  again. 
See  three  illustrations  in  Harper 's  Magazine,  February,  1883  ;  also, 

Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines,  p.  123. 
Cassandra  Southwick. 

A  ballad  of  Quaker  persecution. 
Founded  on  historic  fact. 
Cassandra,  a  Quaker  girl  of  Salem,  Mass. 
The  poem  is  "  full  of  heart-beats." 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  275 

Mary  Garvin. 

"  In  Chase's  History  of  Haverhill,  there  is  preserved  a  letter  from 
one  Mary  Wainwright,  whose  daughter  had  been  carried  away 
by  the  Indians  and  French,  in  which  the  mother  asks  that 
means  be  taken  to  get  her  child  back  before  she  should  be 
perverted." 
Miriam. 

A  sermon  in  poetry. 

A  Christian  slave  and  favorite  wife  of  an  Oriental  monarch  inspires 

her  lord  to  show  Christian  mercy  toward  one  condemned. 
The  Pennsylvania  Pilgrim. 

Pastorius.  A  German  jurist  and  scholar  who  came  to  Pennsylvania 
at  William  Penn's  invitation,  and  founded  Germantown ; 
"the  combined  Bradford  and  Brewster  of  the  colony." 
(Read  prefatory  note.) 

Pastorious'    memorial    against  slavery,  drawn  up  in  1688  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Germantown  Friends,  was  the  first  protest 
made  by  any  religious  body  against  negro  slavery. 
"  A  poem  for  Quakers." 

"  A  truly  erudite  work  for  its  limited  sphere." 
My  Playmate. 

"It  is  a  perfect  poem;  in  some  of  his  descriptions  of  scenery 
and  wild-flowers,  Whittier  would  rank  with  Wordsworth."  — 
TENNYSON. 

"Bin'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott."    ("The  Furnace  Blast.") 
Set  to  the  music  of  Luther's  hymn. 

Sung  in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Lincoln,  in  the  Union  camps,  and 
by  the  Hutchinson  family  after  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  to 
the  soldiers  encamped  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac. 
The  Vaudois  Teacher. 

The  French  translation  of  this  became  very  popular  among  the 

Waldenses  of  Piedmont,  who  adopted  it  as  a  household  poem. 
Paean. 

Written  after  the  formation  of  the  first  national  anti-slavery  party, 
at  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Laus  Deo ! 

Called  forth  by  the  passing  of  the  constitutional  amendment  abolish 
ing  slavery;  suggested  to  the  poet  as  he  sat  in  the  Friends' 
meeting-house  in  Amesbury,  and  listened  to  the  bells  proclaim 
ing  the  fact. 

"  A  Miriam's  song  of  praise  and  thanksgiving." 


276  JOHN  GEEENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

The  Last  Walk  in  Autumn. 

Contains  appreciative  stanzas  on  Emerson,  Taylor,  Sumner. 

Pollen. 

"  Our  gifted  brother  Whittier  has  again  seized  the  great  trumpet  of 

Liberty,  and  blown  a  blast  that  shall  ring  from  Maine  to  the 

Rocky  Mountains."  —  GARRISON. 
Used  with  great  effect  by  anti-slavery  orators. 

Lines  on  a  Fly-leaf. 

Portrait  sketches  of  Gail  Hamilton,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  Grace 
Greenwood,  Anna  Dickinson,  and  Mrs.  Stowe. 

Little  Red  Riding  Hood 

Phoebe  Woodman,  daughter  to  the  writer's  cousin  at  Oak  Knoll. 

The  Singer. 

A  tribute  to  Alice  and  Phoabe  Gary. 

The  Hero. 

Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe. 

Brown  of  Ossawatomie. 

A  tribute  to  the  nobleness  of  John  Brown's  nature. 

Poems  on  Daniel  Webster. 

Ichabod  !    1  Samuel  iv.  19-22. 

"Written  after  Webster's  famous  speech  of  March  7,  1850,  assent 
ing  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

This  poem  has  been  compared  with  Browning's  "Lost  Leader." 
The  Lost  Occasion. 

A  superb  eulogy,  penned  years  later  and  in  a  tenderer  mood. 

Marguerite. 

The  story  of  an  Acadian  girl  "bound  out"  in  one  of  the  families 
of  Haverhill.  (A  thousand  of  the  exiled  Acadians  were  distrib 
uted  among  the  towns  of  Massachusetts.) 

The  Cry  of  a  Lost  Soul. 

Translated  by  Dom  Pedro  into  Portuguese,  who  sent  a  copy  of  the 
translation  to  Whittier,  accompanied  by  a  well-mounted  pair  of 
the  Amazonian  birds  whose  peculiar  cry  and  name  suggested 
the  poem. 

Monadnock. 

Compare  with  Emerson's  poem  on  the  same  subject. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  277 

Indian  Poems. 

Inferior  to  Longfellow's  Hiawatha. 

The  Bridal  of  Pennacook.     (His  best.)     The  Truce  of  Piscataqua. 
Mary  Garvin.     Pentucket.     The  Fountain.     Funeral  Tree  of 
the  Sokokis.    The  Grave  by  the  Lake.     Nauhaught,  the  Deacon. 
Among  the  Hills. 

(Whittier  frequently  summered  in  the  White  Mountains.) 
"A  pretty  and  melodious  love-story,  with  a  strongly  realistic  pre 
lude." 
Hazel  Blossoms. 

Sumner.      The  Prayer  of    Agassiz.      John  Underbill   (the    poet's 

favorite  among  his  own  works).     In  Quest,  and  others. 
Religious  Poems. 

The  Eternal  Goodness.     The  Crucifixion.     Palestine.    My  Soul  and 
I.    Andrew  Rykman's  Prayer.     The  Prayer  of  Agassiz.    In 
Quest.    A  Christmas  Carmen,  and  others. 
Poems  of  Occasion. 

Centennial  Hymn.  The  Vow  of  Washington,  1889.  The  Two 
Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Founding  of  Haver- 
hill  (1890),  and  minor  ones. 

Hymns. 

The  Plymouth  collection  contains  eleven  by  Whittier. 
In  a  collection  of  sixty-six  hymns  prepared  for  the  use  of  the 
General    Congress    of    Religions    at   the    Chicago  Exposition, 
nine  were  taken  from  Whittier,  a  larger  number  than  from  any 
other  writer. 

"  His  hymns  are  so  many  acts  of  faith."  —  STEDMAN. 
Lines  from  one  of  his  last  poems. 

"As  the  soul  liveth,  it  shall  live 

Beyond  the  years  of  time. 
Beside  the  mystic  asphodels 

Shall  bloom  the  home-born  flowers, 
And  new  horizons  flash  and  glow 
With  sunset  hues  of  ours." 

At  Sundown  (January,  1891). 
Songs  of  Three  Centuries. 

A  collection  of  poems  compiled  by  Whittier  and  Lucy  Larcom. 


Prose  Writings. 

Inferior  to  his  poems. 

Legends  of  New  England.     (Prose  and  verse.) 


278  JOHN  GBEENLEAF  WHITTIEB. 

Justice  and  Expediency;  or,  Slavery  Considered  with  a  View  to 

Abolition. 

Published  in  1833,  an  issue  of  five  hundred  copies,  at  the  writer's 
expense.      Arthur  Tappan,  the  New  York  philanthropist 
and  Abolitionist,  at  once  caused  ten  times  as  many  copies  to 
be  printed  and  circulated. 
Supernaturalism  in  New  England. 

Witch  and  ghost  stories  of  his  neighborhood. 
Margaret  Smith's  Journal. 

Imaginary  description  of  New  England  in  early  times. 

Sketch  of  Puritan  intolerance. 

"  A  novel  similar  in  nature  to  The  Household  of  Sir  Thomas 

Moore." 

Originally  contributed  to  The  National  Era. 
Old  Portraits  and  Modern  Sketches. 
Literary  Recreations  and  Miscellanies. 

"Yankee  Gypsies,"  "Evangeline,"  and  other  papers. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES.  279 


MISCELLANEOUS    NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Whittier. 
(^   "The  world    has  lost  one  of    its  sweetest   lyrists  of    its  saddest 

wrongs." —  The  London  Chronicle,  Sept.  8,  1892. 
"  Emancipated  millions  will  hold  his  memory  sacred."  —  FREDERICK 

DOUGLASS. 
"  Whittier,  like  Hampden  and  Milton,  is  a  character  not  produced 

in  common  times."  —  E.  C.  STEDMAN. 

"He  felt  himself  responsible  to  his  heavenly  Father,  not  for  the 
actions  of  Joseph  or  Paul,  but  for  those  of  John  G.  "Whittier."  — 

F.  H.  UNDERWOOD. 

"With  God's  help  he  thought  for  himself, he  said  earnestly  what  he 
thought,  —  no  more,  no  less,  — and  he  did  exactly  what  he  said." 
—  E.  E.  HALE. 

"  The  love  of  liberty  will  not  die  out  in  the  land  while  the  youth  of 
America  learn  and  love  the  verse  of  the  poet  who  combines  the 
lofty  inspiration  of  David  with  the  sweet  simplicity  of  Burns."  — 

G.  F.  HOAR. 

"  His  war  poems  were  like  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  blown  before 

the  walls  of  Jerusalem." 
"  Whittier  unites  descriptive  talent  as  related  to  natural  scenery, 

the  reformer's  enthusiasm,  and  the  patriot's  sympathies." 
"What  Scott  did  for  the  scenery  of  Scotland,   and   the  Grimm 
brothers  for  that  of  Germany,  Whittier  may  almost  be  said  to 
have  done  for  New  England." 

"He  is  a  sparrow  that  half  sings,  half  chirps  on  a  bush,  not  a  lark 
that  floods  with  orient  hilarity  the  skies  of  the  morning ;  but 
the  bush  burns,  like  that  which  Moses  saw,  and  the  sparrow 
herself  is  part  of  the  divine  flame."  —  DAVID  WASSON. 
"  No  poet  ever  lived  nearer  the  great  heart  of  humanity  than  he."  — 
FRANCES  SPARHAWK. 

"  Gracious  thine  age ;  thy  youth  was  strong, 

For  freedom  touched  thy  tongue  with  fire ; 
To  sing  the  right  and  fight  the  wrong 
Thine  equal  hand  held  bow  or  lyre." 

W.  H.  WARD. 


280  JOHN   GREENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

"  All  honor  and  praise  to  the  right-hearted  bard 
Who  was  true  to  the  Voice  when  such  service  was  hard, 
Who  himself  was  so  free  he  dared  sing  for  the  slave 
When  to  look  but  a  protest  in  silence  was  brave." 

J.  R.  LOWELL. 

"When  our  sad  nation  delved  in  deepest  night, 
To  his  pure  spirit  God  was  still  in  sight." 

WILL  CARLETON. 

"  A  blameless  memory  shrined  in  deathless  song."  —  O.  W.  HOLMEP. 
Ilolines's  poems.     On  Whittier's  seventieth  and  his  eightieth  birth 
days.    Dr.  Holmes  wrote  a  third  poem  after  Whittier's  death. 
Lowell's  Fable ;  and  his  Sonnets,  1884,  1892. 
Longfellow's  Sonnet,  "The  Three  Silences  of  Molinos." 

Forfac-simile  of  the  original,  see  The  New  England  Magazine  for 

December,  1892. 
Stednian's  "Ad  Vigilem." 

John  T.  Chadwick's  "A  Thought  on  Whittier." 
Allen  E.  Cross's  "  The  Passing  of  Whittier." 
Will   Carleton's  "Ode  to  Whittier."     (Written  for  the  Haverhill 

memorial  services.) 
See  The  Literary  World  for  Dec.  1,  1877. 

Position  as  Balladist. 

Whittier  ranks  in  this  field  first  among  American  poets. 

Homes. 

East  Haverhill.     (See  notes  on  the  Birthplace.) 
Amesbury.     (Friend  Street.) 

His  study,  the  "Garden  Room."  (Facing  the  garden.)  Book- 
lined  walls.  Three  pictures  of  interest,  —  The  Haverhill 
Birthplace,  The  Barefoot  Boy,  and  Barry's  The  Mother 
less,  with  lines  by  Mrs.  Stowe  written  under  it.  (The  last- 
named  inspired  one  of  his  two  poems  called  "  The  Sisters.") 
Consult  Stoddard's  Poets'  Homes,  Kennedy's  Whittier,  Pickard's  Life 

of  Whittier,  Vol.  I.,  and  Wolfe's  Literary  Shrines. 
Newburyport.    With  his  cousins,  the  Cartlands. 

The  house  had  been  the  early  home  of  Harriet  Livermore,  the 

eccentric  personage  portrayed  in  Snowbound. 
Oak  Knoll,  Danvers. 

The  estate  where  once  lived  George  Burroughs,  the  athletic 

clergyman  hanged  for  supposed  witchcraft. 
For  view,   see  Mrs.  Fields's  Whittier  and   The  New  England 
Magazine  for  November,  1892. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  281 

His  Pets. 

In  Amesbury  a  gifted  parrot,  Charlie,  referred  to  in  the  poem,  "  The 

Common  Question." 

At  Oak  Knoll,  a  squirrel,  two  dogs,  Jersey  cows,  and  a  mocking-bird. 
"  Whittier  secured  the  love  of  every  living  thing  that  came  under 

his  care." 
His  Celibacy. 

A  house  is  shown  in  Marblehead,  Mass.,  in  which,  according  to  tra 
dition,  lived  the  love  of  the  poet's  youth  (Evelina  Bray). 
"  Possibly  there  is  reference  to  the  same  person  in  the  poems,  '  Tell 
ing  the  Bees'  and  '  In  School  Days.'  " 
Read  the  poems,  "My  Playmate"  and  "Memories." 
"  Circumstances  —  the  care  of  an  aged  mother,  and  the  duty  owed  to 
a  sister  in  delicate  health  for  many  years  —  must  be  my  excuse 
for  living  the  lonely  life  which  has  called  out  thy  pity.  ...    I 
have  learned  to  look  into  happiness  through  the  eyes  of  others, 
and  to  thank  God  for  the  happy  unions  and  holy  firesides  I  have 
known." — Letter  to  a  friend. 
Illustration  of  his  Humor. 

"  Ah,  ladies,  you  love  to  levy  a  tax 

On  my  poor  little  paper  parcel  of  fame ; 
Yet  strange  it  seems,  that  among  you  all 
Not  one  is  willing  to  take  my  name  — 
To  write  and  rewrite,  till  angels  pity  her, 
The  weariful  words,  Thine  truly,  Whittier." 

Lines  in  a  Young  Lady's  Album. 
Views  on  Marriage. 

"  Let  me  in  all  sincerity,  bachelor  as  I  am,  congratulate  thee  on  thy 
escape  from  single  misery.  It  is  the  very  wisest  thing  thee  ever 
did.  Were  I  autocrat  I  would  see  to  it  that  every  young  man 
over  twenty-five,  and  every  young  woman  over  twenty,  was  mar 
ried  without  delay.  Perhaps,  on  second  thought,  it  might  be 
well  to  keep  one  old  maid  and  one  old  bachelor  in  each  town,  by 
way  of  warning,  just  as  the  Spartans  did  their  drunken  Helots." 
—  Letter  to  his  publisher,  Mr.  Fields,  at  the  time  of  the  latter' s 
marriage. 
Love  of  New  England. 

Whittier,  like  Thoreau,  did  not  travel. 
Note  his  verses:  — 

"  He  who  wanders  widest,  lifts 
No  more  of  beauty's  jealous  veil 
Than  he  who  from  his  doorway  sees 
The  miracle  of  flowers  and  trees." 


282  JOHN   GBEENLEAF   WII1TT1EE. 

Benefactions. 

Generous.    In  harmony  with  his  verses :  — 

"  O  well-paid  author,  fat-fed  scholar, 
Whose  pockets  jingle  with  the  dollar, 
No  sheriff's  hand  upon  your  collar, 

No  duns  to  hother, 
Think  on't,  a  tithe  of  what  ye  swallow 

Would  save  your  brother." 

In  his  will  he  made  bequests  to  the  amount  of  $66,000. 
Ideal  Message  of  Sympathy. 

To  Mrs.  Lothrop,  "Margaret  Sidney,"  upon  the  death  of  her  hus 
band,  Daniel  Lothrop,  the  publisher:  "Let  me  sit  in  the  circle 
of  thy  mourning;  for  I,  too,  have  lost  a  friend." 

His  Self-Restraint. 

"  He  religiously  curbed  his  tongue,  and  said  of  himself  that  he  was 
born  without  an  atom  of  patience  in  his  composition ;  but  that 
he  had  tried  to  manufacture  it  as  needed." 
His  Optimism. 

"Of  course  the  world  is  growing  better;  the  Lord  reigns;  our  old 
planet  is  wheeling  slowly  into  light.    I  despair  of  nothing  good. 
All  will  come  in  due  time  that  is  needed.     All  we  have  to  do  is 
to  work  —  and  wait."     (Written  in  1881.) 
Color-Blindness. 

Whittier  could  not  recognize  shades  of  red  and  green ;  but  he  appre 
ciated  yellow  so  keenly  that  he  felt  compensated  for  the  defect. 
His  face,  in  the  opinion  of  an  eminent  authority  on  the  subject, 
bore  the  characteristic  look  of  the  color-blind. 

Modest  Self-Estimate  of  His  Verse. 

"  I  am  not  a  builder  in  the  sense  of  Milton's  phrase  of  one  who  could 
'  build  the  lofty  rhyme.'  My  vehicles  have  been  of  the  humbler 
sort,  —  merely  the  farm-wagon  and  buckboard  of  verse,  and  not 
likely  to  run  so  long  as  Dr.  Holmes's  'One  Hoss  Shay.'  ...  I 
shall  not  dare  to  warrant  any  of  my  work  for  a  long  drive." 

A  Rule  of  His  Life. 

Never  to  buy  anything  until  he  had  the  money  in  hand  to  pay  for  it. 

Early  Pseudonyms. 

Adrian.    Donald.     Timothy.     Micajah.    Ichabod. 
Number  of  Poems  composed  between  1832  and  1865. 

Nearly  three  hundred,  more  than  a  third  of  which  bore  directly  or 
indirectly  upon  the  subject  of  slavery. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  283 

Literary  and  Anti-Slavery  Labors. 

"I  cannot  be  sufficiently  grateful  to  the  divine  Providence  that  so 
early  called  my  attention  to  the  great  interests  of  humanity, 
saving  me  from  the  poor  ambitions  and  miserable  jealousies  of 
a  selfish  pursuit  of  literary  reputation.  Up  to  a  comparatively 
recent  period  my  writings  have  been  simply  episodical,  some 
thing  apart  from  the  real  object  and  aim  of  my  life ;  and  what 
ever  favor  they  have  found  with  the  public  has  come  to  me  as  a 
grateful  surprise,  rather  than  as  an  expected  reward."  (18G7.) 
Whittier  and  Calvinism. 

"  In  no  otljer  of  our  poets  do  we  find  such  traces  of  the  conflict  of  old 
New  England  Calvinism  as  in  the  pages  of  Whittier,  and  it  is  in 
his  help  for  freeing  them  from  the  thraldom  of  that  nightmare 
that  many  owe  him  most.  Whittier  was  born  into  a  time  and 
place  in  which  the  merciless  old  theology  was  supreme ;  and  the 
more  he  came  to  know  it,  the  more  his  Quaker  soul  recoiled 
[from?]  and  fought  it.  —  EDWIN  D.  MEAD. 

Read  his  poems,  "  The  Eternal  Goodness,"  "  The  Minister's  Daugh 
ter,"  and  "The  Preacher"  (George  Whitefield,  buried  in  New- 
buryport,  not  far  from  Whittier's  home). 
Concluding  Paragraph  of  Justice  and  Expediency. 

"And  when  the  stain  in  our  own  escutcheon  shall  be  seen  no  more; 
when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  practice  of  our 
people  shall  agree;  when  Truth  shall  be  exalted  among  us; 
when  Love  shall  take  the  place  of  Wrong ;  when  all  the  baneful 
pride  and  prejudice  of  caste  and  color  shall  fall  forever;  when 
under  one  common  sun  of  political  Liberty  the  slaveholding  por 
tions  of  our  Republic  shall  no  longer  sit  like  Egyptians  of  old, 
themselves  mantled  in  thick  darkness,  while  all  around  them  is 
glowing  with  the  blessed  light  of  freedom  and  equality,  —  then, 
and  not  till  then,  shall  it  go  well  for  America." 
Motto  of  "  The  Liberator,"  a  paper  edited  at  one  time  by  Whittier. 

"  Unconditional  emancipation  is  the  immediate  duty  of  the  master, 

and  the  immediate  right  of  the  slave." 
Our  Journalist  Poets. 

Whittier.    Bryant.     Poe.    Holmes.    Lowell. 
Illustrated  Editions  of  Whittier's  Poetry.     (Houghton  &  Mifflin.) 

Poems  Complete.    Three  one-volumed  editions. 

Individual  Poems. 

Snow-Bound.     At  Sundown.     Maud  Muller.    Mabel  Martin. 
Ballads  of  New  England.    Poems  of  Nature. 


284  JOHN   GEEENLEAF   WI11TT1ER. 

Riverside  Edition  of  His  Works. 

Four  volumes  of  poetry,  three  of  prose. 

A  number  of  the  poems  in  this  edition  have  notes  written  by  the 
author. 

A  Characterization  of  Whittier. 

"  His  gallantry  watched  kindly  on  her  way 

The  humble  maid  that  tossed  the  fragrant  hay ; 

His  pity  sought  the  fallen  conquered  brave, 

And  left  its  tears  upon  an  Indian  grave ; 

"With  flowers  of  justice  and  of  love  he  strewed 

The  Witch's  child,  by  zealotry  pursued ;          . 

Even  the  soul  in  endless  darkness  thrown, 

Had  pity  from  his  muse ;  there  was  no  moan 
Escaped  his  eager  ear! 

He  pitied,  with  brave  words  that  echo  yet, 

Th'  old  soldier,  prisoned  for  a  paltry  debt ; 

He  helped  to  give  a  new  and  honored  place 

To  an  unjustly  subjugated  race ; 

And  though  of  peaceful  lineage  and  creed, 

Yet  he  could  fight  when  conflict  was  the  need ; 

And  he  could  mould  the  silver  of  his  song 

In  solid  shot,  to  hurl  'gainst  shame  and  wrong ; 

And  tyrants  fell,  and  fetters  burst  in  twain, 

Before  the  fierce  artillery  of  his  brain." 

WILL  CARLETON. 
A  Group  of  Abolitionists. 

Whittier.    The  Poet  of  Anti-Slavery. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison.    The  Apostle. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher.    The  Preacher. 

Charles  Sumner.    The  Statesman. 

Wendell  Phillips.    The  Orator. 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.    The  Novelist. 

The  Hutchinson  Family,  of  Lynn,  Mass.    The  Singers. 


OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 


OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 

ESSAYIST,  POET,  NOVELIST,  HUMOBIST,  SCIENTIST. 


EXTRACTS. 

BUILD  thee  more  stately  mansions,  0  my  soul, 

As  the  swift  seasons  roll ! 

Leave  thy  low-vaulted  past ! 
Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free, 

Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea ! 
THE  CHAMBEKED  NAUTILUS. 

AY,  tear  her  tattered  ensign  down ! 

Long  has  it  waved  on  high, 
And  many  an  eye  has  danced  to  see 

That  banner  in  the  sky. 

OLD  IRONSIDES. 

AND,  since,  I  never  dare  to  write 
As  funny  as  I  can. 

THE  HEIGHT  OF  THE  RIDICULOUS. 

SILENCE  like  a  poultice  comes 
To  heal  the  blows  of  sound. 

THE  MUSIC-GKINDEBS. 

287 


288  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

You  hear  that  boy  laughing  ?  —  you  think  he's  all  fun, 
But  the  angels  laugh,  too,  at  the  good  he  has  done ; 
The  children  laugh  loud  as  they  troop  to  his  call, 
And  the  poor  man  that  knows  him  laughs  loudest  of  all. 

THE  BOYS. 

THE  mossy  marbles  rest 

On  the  lips  that  he  has  prest 

In  their  bloom. 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  the  tomb. 

THE  LAST  LEAF. 

MY  aunt !  my  poor,  deluded  aunt ! 

Her  hair  is  almost  gray ; 
Why  will  she  train  that  winter  curl 

In  such  a  spring-like  way  ? 

MY  AUNT. 

WHEN  darkness  gathers  over  all, 
And  the  last  tottering  pillars  fall, 

Take  the  poor  dust  Thy  mercy  warms, 
And  mould  it  into  heavenly  forms. 

THE  LIVING  TEMPLE. 

GOD  of  all  Nations  !  Sovereign  Lord  ! 
In  Thy  dread  name  we  draw  the  sword, 
We  lift  the  starry  flag  on  high 
That  fills  with  light  our  stormy  sky. 

ARMY  HYMN. 

When  I  talk  of  Whig  and  Tory,  when  I  tell  the  Rebel  story, 
To  you  the  words  are  ashes,  but  to  me  they're  burning  coals. 
GRANDMOTHER'S  STORY  OF  BUNKER  HILL. 


EXTRACTS.  289 

LORD  of  the  Universe  !  shield  us  and  guard  us, 
Trusting  Thee  always,  through  shadow  and  sun ! 
Thou  hast  united  us,  who  shall  divide  us  ? 
Keep  us,  0  keep  us  the  Many  in  One  ! 

Up  with  our  banner  bright, 

Sprinkled  with  starry  light, 
Spread  its  fair  emblems  from  mountain  to  shore, 

While  through  the  sounding  sky 

Loud  rings  the  nation's  cry,  — 
Union  and  Liberty  !     One  evermore  ! 

UNION  AND  LIBERTY. 

WHILE  Valor's  haughty  champions  wait 

Till  all  their  scars  are  shown, 
Love  walks  unchallenged  through  the  gate 

To  sit  beside  the  Throne. 

THE  Two  ARMIES. 

WHO  would  not,  will  not,  if  he  can, 
Bathe  in  the  breezes  of  fair  Cape  Ann,  — 
Rest  in  the  bowers  her  bays  enfold, 
Loved  by  the  sachems  and  squaws  of  old  ? 
Home  where  the  white  magnolias  bloom, 
Sweet  with  the  bayberry's  chaste  perfume, 
Hugged  by  the  woods  and  kissed  by  the  sea ! 
Where  is  an  Eden  like  to  thee  ? 

THE  BROOMSTICK  TRAIN. 

LITTLE  of  all  we  value  here 

Wakes  on  the  morn  of  its  hundredth  year 

Without  both  feeling  and  looking  queer. 

THE  DEACON'S  MASTERPIECE. 


290  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

SENTENCES   FROM   THE  AUTOCRAT. 

BOSTON  State  House  is  the  hub  of  the  Solar  System. 
You  couldn't  pry  that  out  of  a  Boston  man  if  you  had 
the  tire  of  all  creation  straightened  out  for  a  crowbar. 

Put  not  your  trust  in  money,  but  put  your  money  in  trust. 

Passion  never  laughs.  The  wit  knows  that  his  place 
is  at  the  tail  of  the  procession. 

Every  person's  feelings  have  a  front  door  and  a  side 
door  by  which  they  may  be  entered.  ...  Be  very  care 
ful  to  whom  you  trust  one  of  the  keys  of  the  side  door. 

The  brain-women  never  interest  us  like  the  heart- 
women  :  white  roses  please  less  than  red. 

When  a  strong  brain  is  weighed  with  a  true  heart,  it 
seems  to  me  like  balancing  a  bubble  against  a  wedge  of 
pure  gold. 

The  world  has  a  million  roosts  for  a  man,  but  only 
one  nest. 

Facts  always  yield  the  place  of  honor  in  conversation 
to  thoughts  about  facts. 

I  find  the  great  thing  in  this  world  is  not  so  much 
where  we  stand,  as  in  what  direction  we  are  moving. 

A  man's  opinions  are  of  much  more  value  than  his 
arguments. 

"  This  is  the  shortest  way,"  she  said,  as  we  came  to 
a  corner.  "  Then  we  wont  take  it,"  said  I. 

I  have  known  several  genteel  idiots  whose  whole  vocabu 
lary  had  deliquesced  into  some  half-dozen  expressions. 

We  never  tell  our  secrets  to  people  who  pump  for 
them. 


EXTRACTS.  291 

Consciousness  of  unquestioned  position  makes  people 
gracious  in  proper  measure  to  all. 

All  men  love  all  women.  .  .  .  The  Court  of  Nature 
assumes  the  law  to  be  that  all  men  do  so ;  and  the 
individual  man  is  bound  to  show  cause  why  he  does  not 
love  any  particular  woman. 

Any  new  formula  which  suddenly  emerges  in  our  con 
sciousness  has  its  roots  in  long  trains  of  thought. 

Books  are  the  negative  pictures  of  thought;  and  the 
more  sensitive  the  mind  that  receives  their  images,  the 
more  nicely  the  finest  lines  are  reproduced. 

HELEN  DARLEY  AND  ELSIE   VENNER. 

SHE  was  a  splendid  scowling  beauty,  black-browed,  with 
a  flash  of  white  teeth  which  was  always  like  a  surprise 
when  her  lips  parted.  She  wore  a  checkered  dress,  of  a 
curious  pattern,  and  a  camel's-hair  scarf  twisted  a  little 
fantastically  about  her.  She  went  to  her  seat,  which  she 
had  moved  a  short  distance  apart  from  the  rest,  and,  sit 
ting  down,  began  playing  listlessly  with  her  gold  chain, 
as  was  a  common  habit  with  her,  coiling  it  and  uncoiling 
it  about  her  slender  wrist,  and  braiding  it  in  her  long 
delicate  fingers.  Presently  she  looked  up.  Black,  pier 
cing  eyes,  not  large  ;  a  low  forehead,  as  low  as  that  of 
Clytie  in  the  Townley  bust ;  black  hair,  twisted  in  heavy 
braids,  —  a  face  that  one  could  not  help  looking  at  for 
its  beauty,  yet  that  one  wanted  to  look  away  from  for 
something  in  its  expression,  and  could  not  for  those 
diamond  eyes.  They  were  fixed  on  the  lady  teacher 
now.  The  latter  turned  her  own  away,  and  let  them 
wander  over  the  other  scholars.  But  they  could  not 


292  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

help  coming  back  again  for  a  single  glance  at  the  wild 
beauty.  The  diamond  eyes  were  on  her  still.  She  turned 
the  leaves  of  several  of  her  books,  as  if  in  search  of 
some  passage,  and,  when  she  thought  she  had  waited 
long  enough  to  be  safe,  once  more  stole  a  look  at  the 
dark  girl.  The  diamond  eyes  were  still  upon  her.  She 
put  her  kerchief  to  her  forehead,  which  had  grown  slightly 
moist ;  she  sighed  once,  almost  shivered,  for  she  felt  cold ; 
then,  following  some  ill-defined  impulse,  which  she  could 
not  resist,  she  left  her  place  and  went  to  the  young  girl's 
desk. 

"  What  do  you  want  of  me,  Elsie  Vernier  ?  "  It  was 
a  strange  question  to  put,  for  the  girl  had  not  signified 
that  she  wished  the  teacher  to  come  to  her. 

"  Nothing,"  she  said.  "  I  thought  I  could  make  you 
come."  The  girl  spoke  in  a  low  tone,  a  kind  of  half- 
whisper.  She  did  not  lisp,  yet  her  articulation  of  one 
or  two  consonants  was  not  absolutely  perfect. 

"  Where  did  you  get  that  flower,  Elsie  ? "  said  Miss 
Darley.  It  was  a  rare  Alpine  flower,  which  was  found 
only  in  one  spot  among  the  rocks  of  The  Mountain. 

"  Where  it  grew,"  said  Elsie  Venner.  "  Take  it." 
The  teacher  could  not  refuse  her.  The  girl's  finger-tips 
touched  hers  as  she  took  it.  How  cold  they  were  for  a 
girl  of  such  an  organization  ! 

The  teacher-  went  back  to  her  seat.  She  made  an  ex 
cuse  for  quitting  the  schoolroom  soon  afterwards.  The 
first  thing  she  did  was  to  fling  the  flower  into  her  fire 
place  and  rake  the  ashes  over  it.  The  second  was  to 
wash  the  tips  of  her  fingers,  as  if  she  had  been  another 
Lady  Macbeth.  A  poor,  overtasked,  nervous  creature, 
—  we  must  not  think  too  much  of  her  fancies. 

ELSIE 


REFERENCES.  293 


REFERENCES. 

Emma  E.  Brown's  Life  of  Holmes.     (Revised  Edition,  1895.) 

Stedman's  Poets  of  America. 

Arthur  Oilman's  Poets'  Homes. 

H.  T.  Griswold's  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 

G.  W.  Curtis's  Homes  of  American  Authors;  his  Literary  and  Social 

Essays. 

R.  H.  Stoddard's  Poets'  Homes. 
Shepard's  Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors. 
Sarah  K.  Bolton's  Famous  American  Authors  (1887). 
Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature.     Vol.  VII. 
Haweis's  American  Humorists. 
Richardson's  American  Literature.    Vol.   I.,   pp.   372-379   (Holmes  as 

Essayist).     Vol.  II.,  pp.  204-218  (Holmes  as  Poet). 
Charles  Morris's  Half  Hours  with  the  Best  American  Authors. 
Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors. 
Appletons'  Cyclopxdia  of  American  Biography. 
Text-books  and  Cyclopaedias  of  American  Literature. 
Scribner's  Magazine.    May,  1879  (Biographical  Sketch  by  Underwood). 

January,  1895  ("Holmes  as  Professor  of  Anatomy"). 
The  New  England  Magazine.    October,  1889  ("Holmes  at  Fourscore." 

Illustrated.     "Dr.  Holmes's  Pilgrim  Poems"). 
McClurc's  Magazine.     July,  1893  ("An  Afternoon  with  Holmes."    By 

E.  E.  Hale.     Illustrated).     August,   1893   ("Human  Documents." 

Seven  portraits  of  Holmes  at  different  ages). 
Harper's    Magazine.    January,   1876    ("Cambridge    on   the  Charles." 

Illustrated).    July,   1891    (Article  by  O.  \V.  Curtis.    Frontispiece, 

Holmes's     portrait).      July,    1894     (Howells's    "Reminiscences    of 

Holmes"). 

The  Century  Magazine.     February,  1885  (Article  by  Stedman).     Febru 
ary,  1895  (Mrs.  Fields's  "  Reminiscences  of  Holmes"). 
The  Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine.  December,  1894  (Memorial  Articles). 
Littell's  Living  Age.    Jan.  G,  1849.    March  7,  1849  (Article  on  Holrnes's 

poems.    By  Whittier).    Oct.  8,  1853.    Nov.  24, 1894. 


294  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

The  Holmes  Number  of  The  Critic.    Aug.  29,  1884  (On  his  Seventy-fifth 
Birthday).      The    Critic.     Oct.   13,   1894   (Illustrated    Biographical 
Sketch). 
The  Atlantic  Monthly.    February,  1885  ("  Reminiscences."    By  Holmes). 

December,  1894  ("Holmes."     By  the  editor). 
Poole's  Index  of  Periodical  Literature  and  its  two  Supplements. 
Outlines  for  a  Study  of  Holmes,  Bryant,  and  Whittier  (Leaflet). 
NOTES.  —  Kennedy's  Life  of  Holmes,  published  by  Cassino,  is  now  out  of 

print. 

Dr.  Holmes  has  written  recollections  of  his  past  life  to  "serve  as 
material  to  help  some  kind  of  memoir."  These  have  been  em 
bodied  in  John  T.  Morse's  Life  and  Letters  of  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  295 


OUTLINE   OF   HIS   LIFE. 

August  29,  1809. 
October  7,  1894.'- 

Born  the  same  year  with  Gladstone,  Lincoln,  Poe,  Mrs.  Browning, 

Tennyson,  Lord  Houghton,  Mendelssohn. 

"I  took  my  first  draught  of  that  fatal  mixture  called  atmos 
pheric  air  on  the  29th  of  August,  1809." 

Paternal  Ancestors. 

Great-grandfather,  John  Holmes,  settled  in  Woodstock,  Conn., 

in  1686. 

Grandfather.     David   Holmes,    the   "  deacon "    in    "  The   One 
Hoss  Shay." 

Captain  of  British  troops  in  the  French  War,  and  later  a  sur 
geon  in  the  Revolutionary  Army. 
Read  Holmes's  noble  verses  in  memory  of  these  two  men  in  the 

poem,  "A  Family  Record." 
Father. 

Abiel  Holmes.     "  A  gentleman,  a  scholar,  and  a  Christian." 
A  tutor  and  theological  student  at  Yale  ;  married  the  daughter 

of  President  Stiles.     Minister  for  forty  years  over  the  First 

Church,  Cambridge  (now  the  Shepard  Memorial  Church). 
Charitable  toward  the  Channing  school  of  theologians. 
Wrote  American  Annals,  the  first  careful  record  of  American 

history  after  the  Revolution. 
"  One  of  his  last  acts  was  to  give  a  good  book  to  every  member 

of  his  Sunday-school  as  they  passed  before  the  pulpit  where 

he  stood." 
Mother. 

A  Wendell,  of  Dutch  descent. 

The  Wendells  came  to  America  about  1646.     "  I  never  meet  a 

Schuyler  or  a  Cuyler  or  a  Van  Rensselaer  without  claiming 

relationship  with  the  owner  of  that  name."  —  HOLMES,  in  a 

letter  to  the  Holland  Society,  Neio  York. 


296  OLIVER    WENDELL    HOLMES. 

An  ancestor  bought  in  1735  a  township  (now  Pittsfield)  on  the 
Housatonic  River,  of  24,000  acres,  and  married  a  descendant 
of  Anne  Bradstreet,  America's  earliest  poetess. 

The  family  arms  may  be  seen  on  a  window  in  a  Dutch  church 
at  Albany,  1ST.Y. 

Granddaughter  to  Dorothy  Quincy  ("Dorothy  Q."),  who  wTas 
aunt  to  Mrs.  John  Hancock,  a  second  Dorothy  Quincy. 

Daughter  of  Hon.  Oliver  Wendell,  an  eminent  lawyer. 

See  Scn&ner's  Magazine,  May,  1879. 

Read  Holmes' s  poem,  "Dorothy  Q." 

Third  of  Five  Children. 
Cousin  to  Wendell  Phillips. 

Boyhood. 

A  happy  one. 
Spent  in  a  home  of  culture,  with  three  merry  brothers,  the 

youngest  of  whom,  John  (still  living,  1890),  is  often  referred 

to  in  James  Russell  Lowell's  poetry,  as  "  J.  H." 
"  I  cannot  help  thinking  we  carry  our  childhood's  horizon  with 

us  all  our  days." 
Early  Schoolmates.     Margaret  Fuller  and  Richard  Henry  Dana, 

Jr. 
"  I  was  moderately  studious,  and  very  fond  of  reading  stories, 

which  I  sometimes  did  in  school  hours." 
Read  Chapter  VII.,  in  his  Pages  from  an  Old  Volume  of  Life. 

("Cinders  from  the  Ashes.") 
Education. 

His  Father's  Library. 
Phillips  Academy,  Andover. 

See  poem,  "The  School-Boy,"  read  at  the  centennial  cele 
bration  of  the  academy,  in  1878.  (An  annotated  ver 
sion  of  it  is  given  in  Houghton  &  Mifflin's  American 
Poems.  It  has  been  illustrated  also. ) 

Translated  in  heroic  couplets  the  first  book  of  The 
Harvard  College.     Famous  class  of  1829,  including  — 

Professor  Benjamin  Pierce,  mathematician. 

Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke. 

Rev.  William  H.  Channing. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  297 

Hon.  George  T.  Davis,  a  brilliant  talker. 

Judge  Benjamin  K.  Curtis. 

Samuel  J.  May,  a  zealous  Abolitionist. 

Judge  George  T.  Bigelow. 

Rev.  Samuel  F.  Smith,  author  of  "America."  (See  illus 
trated  article,  "  Our  National  Songs,"  in  The  New  Eng 
land  Magazine,  July,  1890. ) 

Read  the  poem,  "The  Boys,"  written  for  the  reunion  of 
1859.  (In  this  the  only  classmate  mentioned  by  name 
is  the  composer  of  our  national  hymn.  The  "  speaker  " 
was  F.  B.  Crowninshield,  and  the  "mayor,"  George  T. 
Davis,  of  Greenfield,  Mass.) 

"  '  The  boys '  we  were,  '  the  boys '  we'll,  be 

As  long  as  three,  as  two,  are  creeping  ; 
And  here's  to  him  — ah  !  which  is  he  ?  — 
Who  lives  till  all  the  rest  are  sleeping  ; 
A  life  with  tranquil  comfort  blest, 

The  young  man's  health,  the  rich  man's  plenty, 
All  earth  can  give  that  earth  has  best,  , 
And  heaven  at  fourscore  years  and  twenty." 

Ad  Amicos. 

His  scholarship  admitted  him  to  membership  in  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  Society. 

Gave  the  poem  at  Commencement. 

Roomed  in  Stoughton  Hall. 

Charles  Sumner,  John  Lothrop  Motley,  and  Wendell  Phillips 

were  in  Harvard  at  the  same  time. 
Harvard  Law  School.     One  year. 

Abandoned  law  for  medicine. 

Wrote  for  The  Collegian  the  poems  :  "  The  Dorchester 
Giant,"  "  Evening.  By  a  Tailor,"  "  Old  Ironsides," 
"  The  Height  of  the  Ridiculous." 

Three  Years  in  Europe,  mostly  passed  in  the  hospitals  of  Lon 
don  and  Paris. 

A  view  of  the  Paris  house  in  which  he  lived  two  years  is 
seen  in  McClure's  Magazine,  July,  1893. 

Read  "A  Prospective  Visit,"  The  Atlantic,  July,  1886. 


298  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Degree  of  M.D.  at  Cambridge,  1830. 

Gained  three  Boylston  prizes  for  medical  dissertations. 

Reads  "Poetry;  A  Metrical  Essay,"  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society  at  Harvard.  1836. 

"The  'Metrical  Essay'  was  the  serious  announcement  that  the 
poet  was  not  lost  in  the  man  of  science." 

"  Its  literary  form  is  exquisite,  and  its  general  impression  is 
that  of  bright,  elastic,  confident  power."  —  G.  W.  CURTIS. 

"  The  delivery  of  this  poein  was  a  rich,  nearly  a  dramatic,  en 
tertainment." 

One  of  the  few  successful  Phi  Beta  Kappa  poems. 

(Emerson  delivered  his  oration,  "  The  American  Scholar," 
before  the  sajne  society,  the  following  year.) 

Publication  of  His  First  Volume  of  Poems.     1836. 

Three  years  before  Longfellow's  first  volume,  Voices  of  the 
Niyht,  appeared. 

Professor  of  Anatomy  at  Dartmouth  College.     1838-1840. 

Marriage  with  Amelia   Lee  Jackson,  daughter  to  a  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts.     Made  his  home  in  Boston, 
and  practised  medicine.     ("The  smallest  fevers  gratefully 
received."     Remark  to  a  friend.) 

Lived  for  twenty  years  in  the  same  house,  Number  8,  in  Mont 
gomery  Place,  and  here  all  his  children  were  born.  (Notice 
verse  alluding  to  it,  in  the  ppem,  "Nux  Postcoenatica.") 
Mrs.  Holmes' s  habitually  pleasant  expression  was  attributed  by 
one  of  her  friends  to  her  constant  smiling  at  her  husband's 
wit. 

Parkman  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology  at  Harvard.     1847- 

1882. 

Relinquished  medical  practice. 
As  lecturer,  interesting,  original,  and  stimulating. 
Themes.       Anatomy,    physiology,     histology,    and    microscopy. 

(He  was  wont  to  speak  of  occupying,  not  a  "chair,"  but 

"settee,"  of  medicine.) 
"  I   ought   to  tell  you  that,  though  he  illustrates  his  medical 

lectures  by  quotations  of  the  most  appropriate  and  interest- 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  299 

ing. sort  from  a  wonderful  variety  of  authors,  he  has  never 
been  known  to  refer  to  his  own  writings  in  that  way." 
AHTHUK  GILMAX. 
Made  Professor  Emeritus.     1882.     A  rare  distinction. 

Invents  the  Stereoscope  in  its  Present  Form. 

Obtained  no  patent.  Might  have  made  a  fair  fortune  out  of 
this  ;  "but,"  he  said,  "I  did  not  care  to  be  known  as  the 
patentee  of  a  pill  or  of  a  peeping  contrivance." 

Becomes  a  Lyceum  Lecturer.     1847. 

Principal  Subject.     "  English  Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century." 

Did  not  take  kindly  to  the  itinerant  life  involved  ;  he  "pre 
ferred  nateral  death  to  putting  himself  out  of  the  world  by 
such  violent  measures  as  lecterin'." 

"  I  have  somewhat  felt  as  if  I  were  a  wandering  spirit,  and  this 
great,  unchanging  multivertebrate  which  I  have  faced  night 
after  night,  was  one  ever-listening  animal,  which  writhed 
along  after  me  wherever  I  fled,  and  coiled  at  my  feet  every 
evening,  turning  up  to  me  the  same  sleepless  eyes  which  I 
thought  I  closed  with  my  last  drowsy  incantation." 

"  His  lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute  were  among  the  most 
noted  of  that  distinguished  platform." 

Connection  with  The  Atlantic  Monthly. 

One  of  its  founders,  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  of  the  galaxy. 

Gave  name  to  the  magazine. 

Lowell  conditioned  his  editorship  of  the  magazine  upon  Ilolmes's 

willingness  to  be  a  contributor.     "You  see  the  doctor  is  like 

a  bright  mountain  stream  that  has  been  dammed  up  among 

the  hills,  and  is  waiting  for  an  outlet  into  the  Atlantic."  - 

LOWELL. 
Was  identified  with  it  more  closely  than  any  other  one  person, 

and  for  a  longer  time. 
Breakfast  Table  Series  of  Papers. 

The  Autocrat.     The  Professor.     The  Poet. 

A  literary  event. 

A  new  revelation  of  Holmes.     (At  the  age  of  fifty.) 

Witty,  satirical,  sentimental. 

"  Took  captive  the  English-reading  public  on  both  sides  of 
the  ocean." 


300  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Over  the  Teacups.     1890. 

'  Written  in  the  white  winter  of  the  poet's  eightieth  year." 
"Full  of  the  same  shrewd  sense  and  wise  comment  and  ten 
der  thought." 
Serial  Novels. 

Elsie  Venner.     The  Guardian  Angel.     A  Mortal  Antipathy. 
Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe. 
Breakfast  given  by  the  editors  in  honor  of  Holmes's  seventieth 

birthday.     Dec.  3.  1879. 

("Our  brains  are  seventy- year  clocks.     The  Angel  of   Life 
winds  them  up  once  for  all,  then  closes  the  case  and  gives 
the  key  into  the  hands  of  the  Angel  of  the  Resurrection.") 
See  Atlantic  Monthly  Supplement.     June,  1880. 

Delivers  A  Fourth  of  Jury  Oration  in  Boston.     1863. 

Second  Visit  to  Europe,  fifty  years  after  the  first.     1886. 
Everywhere  warmly  welcomed. 
Received   the   degrees   D.C.L.    from   Oxford   and   LL.D.    from 

Edinburgh. 
Read  his  description  of  the  Oxford  experience  in  Our  Hundred 

Days  in  Europe. 

Retired  Life  in  Boston. 

Death  in  the  Beacon  Street  Home,  and  Interment  at  Mt.  Auburn. 

"  Last  of  the  minstrel  throng  we  held  in  honor, 

Ay,  last  and  dearest,  with  hushed  hearts  we  lay 
Our  votive  wreaths,  where  veiled,  a  pall  upon  her, 
She  sits,  his  grieving  city  by  the  bay." 

The  Dead  Poet. 

Burial  Service. 

Held  in  King's  Chapel,  his  place  of  worship  for  many  years. 

(Read  his  poem,  "King's  Chapel.") 
Conducted  by  Edward  Everett  Hale. 
Attended  by  many  notable  Americans,  and  by  Mr.  Arbuthnot, 

vicar  of  Trinity  Church,  Stratford,  England. 
Two  of  his  classmates,  Rev.  S.  F.  Smith  and  Rev.  Samuel  May, 

were  present. 


OUTLINE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  301 

Religion. 

An  aggressive  Unitarian. 

Opposed  to  the  Calvinism  of  his  father. 

Character. 

Genial,  humorous,  sympathetic,  fastidious,  critical,  hearty, 
happy,  vivacious,  optimistic.  A  lover  of  flowers.  Fond  of 
boating. 

"He  loves  strongly  his  medical  profession  becauses  he  loves 
human  nature."  —  HAWEIS. 

"  Unlike  Tithonus,  he  secured  from  the  gods,  who  gave  him 
immortality,  also  eternal  youth."  — BOYESON. 

He  enjoyed  socially  the  "  Brahmin  caste  of  New  England." 

A  contra-type  of  Hawthorne  in  temperament  and  intellect. 

"  He  has  taken  his  troubles  lightly,  and  his  labors  have  sat 
easily  upon  him.  He  has  laughed  where  many  would  have 
wept,  and  he  has  joked  where  some  would  have  been  serious, 
if  not  savage."  —  H.  T.  GRISWOLD. 

He  well  illustrated  his  o\vn  words,  "A  true  man's  allegiance  is 
given  that  which  is  highest  in  his  own  nature.  He  rever 
ences  truth,  he  loves  kindness,  he  respects  justice." 

Appearance. 

Small  body  ;  quick  and  nervous  movements.  A  powerful  jaw, 
and  a  thick  underlip  ;  winning  expression.  Of  less  than 
medium  height.  Called  by  Charles  Kingsley,  when  seen  in  a 
frolicsome  mood,  "  an  inspired  jackdaw." 

Fastidious  taste  in  dress. 

"  His  wrords  and  his  countenance  were  alive  with  power  and 
feeling  ;  the  whole  man,  body  and  mind,  seemed  only  a 
miraculous  intellectual  engine." — UNDERWOOD. 

"  I  found  him  physically  of  the  Napoleonic  height,  which  spirit 
ually  overtops  the  Alps."  —  HOWELLS. 

On  the  Lecture  Platform.  See  Macrae's  description  in  Shepard's 
Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors,  pp.  147,  148. 

Children.     Three. 

Oliver  Wendell.    Justice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts. 
Captain  in  the  Civil  War.     Wounded  at  Ball's  Bluff. 


802  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Note  Holmes's  stirring  narrative,  "  My  Hunt  after  the  Cap 
tain,"  now  printed  in  Soundings  from  the  Atlantic,  and 
in  Pages  from  an  Old  Volume  of  Life,  chap.  ii. 
Author  of  The  Common  Law,  and  editor  of  Kent's  Commen 
taries. 

Edward.     Lawyer. 
Amelia  Jackson.     Mrs.  John  T.  Sargent. 

Autobiographic  Pictures. 

Prose.  The  Old  Gambrel -Roofed  House.  My  Hunt  after  the 
Captain.  Cinders  from  the  Ashes.  A  Prospective  Visit. 
Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe.  Introduction  to  A  Mortal 
Antipathy. 

Poetry.  Dorothy  Q.  Parson  Turell's  Legacy.  The  School- 
Boy.  A  Family  Record.  The  Opening  of  the  Piano  (writ 
ten  upon  the  arrival  in  the  home  of  an  imported  dementi 
piano).  The  Iron  Gate.  His  poems  in  celebration  of  the 
Class  of  '29,  about  forty  in  number. 

All  his  writings  are  deliciously  tinctured  with  the  flavor  of  his 
personality  ;  he  is  pre-eminently  a  self-revealing  author. 

"  The  Autocrat  is  his  own  Boswell." 


APPELLATIONS.  303 


APPELLATIONS. 

THE  AUTOCRAT  OF  THE  BREAKFAST  TABLE. 
THE  PROFESSOR  OF  THE  BREAKFAST  TABLE. 
THE  POET  OF  THE  BREAKFAST  TABLE. 
EVEIIYBODY'S  FAVORITE. 
POET  OF  OCCASIONS. 


THE  BLITHE  TOAST-MASTER  OF  THE  NATION. 
PlSINCE  OF  THE  TABLE. 
THE  AMERICAN  MONTAIGNE. 
BOSTON'S  DR.  JOHNSON. 

A  BOSWELL,  WRITING  OUT  HIMSELF.  —  Holmes. 
A  FLOKIST  IN  VERSE.     (Also  self-given.) 
A  YANKEE  FRENCHMAN. 
OUR  TYPICAL  UNIVERSITY  POET. 
THE  LAUREATE  OF  HARVARD  COLLEGE. 
THE  PARAGON  AMONG  COLLEGE  POETS. 
THE  MINSTREL  OF  THE  COLLEGE  THAT  BRED  HIM. 
A  LYRIST  OF  PATHOS,  HUMOR,  AND  OCCASION. 
THE  LIVELIEST  OF  MONOLOGISTS. 
THE  LAST  OF  THE  RECITATIONISTS. 
A  NATURAL  SONGSTER  AND  BALLADIST. 
Ot  u  LAUGHING  PHILOSOPHER. 
A  MERRY  DOCTOR. 

PRINCE  OF  GENIALITY  AND  GENEROSITY. 
KING  OF  THE  DINNER-TABLE. 
A  CHILD  OF  NATURE. 
A  PROVERB-MAKER. 
A  LATER  FRANKLIN  IN  RIPER  DAYS. 
A  WRITER  OF  SOCIETY  VERSE, 
BOSTON'S  POET  LAUREATE. 
A  CHARMING  EGOTIST. 

THE    KINDLY    HUMORIST,    THE   MELTING    POET,   THE    SHREWD 
ESSAYIST.  —  G.    W.   Curtis. 


304  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

THE  AMERICAN  HOOD. 

BELOVED  PHYSICIAN  OF  BODY  AND  MIND. 

A  WHOLESOME  WRITER, 

A  BELIEVER  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW. 

OUR  MERRY  POET  AND  HOMILIST. 

THE  WISE  AND  WITTY  POET, 

OUR  WELCOME  GUIDE,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  FRIEND. 

THE  APOSTLE  OF  LOCAL  CONTENTMENT. 

THE  LITERARY  EMBODIMENT  OF  CHEERFULNESS. 

A  CLEVER  AND  VERSATILE  WRITER. 

LAST  WEARER  OF  GREAT  LAURELS, 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  305 


NOTES   ON   HIS   WRITINGS. 

General  Comments. 

His  writings  are  light,  graceful,  easy,  kindly,  sometimes  pathetic, 

sometimes  humorous;  clever,  original,  versatile;   largely  local, 

and  of  a  decided  medical  riavor ;    unconventional  in  form  and 

theme. 
"  His  resources  in  the  way  of  figure,   illustration,   allusion,   and 

anecdote  are  wonderful." 
"  The  spirit  of  his  poetry  is  democratic." 
"His  prose  is  replete  with  poetic  humor  and  analogy." 


POETRY. 

* 

Classification 

Characteristic  among  His  Serious  Poems. 

The  Chambered  Nautilus.  The  Living  Temple.  Under  the 
Violets.  The  Voiceless.  Homesick  in  Heaven.  Iris,  her 
Book.  Fantasia,  the  Young  Girl's  Poem. 

Humorous  Poems. 

The  One-Hoss  Shay.  How  the  Old  Horse  Won  the  Bet.  The 
Height  of  the  Ridiculous.  The  Ballad  of  the  Oysterman.  Aunt 
Tabitha.  The  Stethoscope  Song.  The  September  Gale.  The 
Spectre  Pig.  The  Hot  Season.  Contentment.  Parson  Turell's 
Legacy  (Harvard's  Presidential  Arm-chair).  The  Broomstick 
Train,  and  others. 

NOTE.  —  The  first  two  and  the  last  are  published  together  in  an 
illustrated  form. 

Humorous  and  Pathetic. 

The  Last  Leaf.    My  Aunt.     Bill  and  Joe. 
"  Smiles  and  tears  come  at  the  command  of  the  master." 
"  Pathos  has  a  curiously  close  connection  with  humor,  both  pro 
ceeding  from  a  keenness  of  sensibility."  —  BARDEEN. 


306  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Patriotic. 

Old  Ironsides.  Ballad  of  the  Boston  Tea-party.  Grandmother's 
Story  of  Bunker  Hill.  Our  Yankee  Girls.  Brother  Jonathan's 
Lament  for  Sister  Caroline.  Never  or  Now.  One  Country.  A 
Voice  of  the  Loyal  North.  Voyage  of  the  Good  Ship  Union. 
God  Save  the  Flag.  Hyrnn  on  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 
Union  and  Liberty.  An  Appeal  for  the  Old  South. 

Compare  Holmes's  war  poems  with  Lowell's. 

NOTE.  —  An  annotated  version  of  Grandmother's  Story  may  be 
found  in  American  Poems,  in  Masterpieces  of  American  Litera 
ture,  and  in  the  Riverside  Literature  Series. 

Occasional  Poems. 

Numerous  and  varied. 

These  number  in  all  more  than  one  hundred. 

"His  verses  have  the  courtesy  and  wit,  without  the  pedagogy,  of 

the  knee-buckle  time."  —  STEDMAN. 

Holmes  is  always  felicitous  in  this  department  of  literature. 
Class  Poems. 

Bill  and  Joe.  Questions  and  Answers.  The  Old  Man  Dreams. 
The  Iron  Gate.  Our  Oldest  Friend.  The  Boys,  and  many 
others. 

"  Pegasus  draws  well  in  harness  the  triumphant  chariot  of  '29, 
in  which  the  lucky  classmates  of  the  poet  move  to  a  unique 
and  happy  renown."  —  CURTIS. 
"  '  "Why  won't  he  stop  writing  ? '  Humanity  cries: 
The  answer  is,  briefly,  '  He  can't  if  he  tries ; 
He  has  played  with  his  foolish  old  feather  so  long, 
That  the  goose-quill,  in  spite  of  him,  cackles  in  song.'  " 

The  Smiling  Listener. — HOLMES. 
Memorial  Verses. 

In  Memory  of  Lincoln.  Edward  Everett.  The  Shakespeare 
Tercentennial  Celebration.  The  Burns  Centennial  Celebra 
tion.  At  the  Dedication  of  Halleck's  Monument.  •  For  the 
Laying  of  the  Cornerstone  at  Harvard's  Memorial  Hall,  and 
for  the  Dedication  of  the  Hall.  Funeral  Services  of  Sumner. 
Miscellaneous. 

For  the  Dinner  given  to  Dickens  in  Boston.  For  the  Meeting 
of  the  American  Medical  Association.  At  the  Atlantic 
Dinner.  A  Farewell  to  Agassiz.  Welcome  to  the  Nations, 
July  4,  1876,  et  alii. 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  307 

Birthday  Poems. 

On  Washington,  Daniel  Webster,  Lowell,  Whittier,  and  Bryant. 
Hymns. 

"Lord  of  all  being,  throned  afar."    A  Sunday  hymn. 

From  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table.     (Long  metre.) 
"  O  Love  Divine,  that  stooped  to  share."    Hymn  of  trust. 

From  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table.     (Long  metre.) 
"  Angel  of  Peace,  thou  hast  wandered  too  long!  " 

Sung  at  the  Boston  Jubilee,  June  15,  1869.     (Ten  syllables.) 

Written  to  the  music  of  Keller's  "  American  Hymn." 
"  Father  of  Mercies,  Heavenly  Friend."    Parting  Hymn.    (Common 

metre. ) 

"  O  Lord  of  Hosts!  Almighty  King!  "    Army  hymn.    (Long  metre.) 
"Thou  Gracious  Power,  whose  mercy  lends." 

Hymn  for  the  class  meeting.     (Long  metre.) 

Vignettes  of  Wordsworth,  Moore,  Keats,  Shelley. 
Two  Poems  on  the  Pilgrim. 

Robinson  of  Leyden.    The  Pilgrim's  Vision. 

Notes  on  Representative  Poems. 

The  Chambered  Nautilus. 
"  Elegy  on  a  shell." 
Originally  printed  in  The  Autocrat. 

Whittier  said  of  it,  "  That  poem  is  booked  for  immortality." 
The  author's  favorite  among  his  poems. 
Construction  of  Stanza.    Interesting. 
Dr.   Holmes's  book-plate  is  a  nautilus,   with  the  inscription,  Per 

ampliora  ad  altiora. 

Note  the  poetic  legend  in  regard  to  this  mollusk. 
"  Long  may  he  live  to  sing  for  us 

His  sweetest  songs  at  evening  time, 

And,  like  his  '  Chambered  Nautilus,' 

To  holier  heights  of  beauty  climb." 

WHITTIEK. 
Parson  Turell's  Legacy. 

"As  thoroughly  Yankee  as  Tarn  O'Shanter  is  Scotch." 

Agnes. 

A  story  of  colonial  time  in  Massachusetts. 

The  scene  is  laid  in  Marblehead  and  Boston. 

Compare  with  Edwin  Lasseter  Bynner's  novel,  Agnes  Surriagt. 


308  OLIVER    WENDELL    HOLMES. 

Dorothy  Q. 

Dorothy  Quincy  was  the  poet's  great-grandmother. 

"  That  sprightly  capture  of  a  portrait's  maiden  soul." 

The  portrait  hangs  on  the  lihrary  wall  of  the  Boston  home. 

See  Houghton  and  Mifflin's  illustrated  edition  of  this  poem,  "The 

Boston  Tea-party,"  and  "  Bunker  Hill." 
Views  of  the  Portrait.  — In  the  illustrated  edition  and  in  Scribner's 

Magazine,  May,  1879. 
A  view  of  Dorothy's  home,   at  Quincy,  Mass.,   may  be    seen  in 

McClure's   Magazine,   July,  1893;    the  same  magazine  article 

shows  Dr.  Holmes's  lihrary,  with  the  picture  on  the  wall. 

The  Last  Leaf. 

The  allusion  is  to  Major  Melville,  one  of  Boston's  "tea-tippers," 

whom  Holmes  used  to  see  daily  pass  his  house. 
Lincoln  called  this  poem  "  inexpressibly  touching." 
"  An  artless  piece  of  art."     "  The  last  leaf  of  his  work  to  perish." 
"  One  of  those  creations  that  are  struck  off  at  white  heat,  and  re 
main  unique  in  literature." — RICHARDSON. 
An  Illustrated  Edition.     ($10.00.     Houghton  and  Mifflin.) 

Printed  in  fac-simile  of  the  author's  handwriting,  with  history 
of  the  poem,  and  notes  by  the  author.  Designs  by  F.  Hop- 
kinson  Smith  and  G.  W.  Edwards.  (Also  in  less  expensive 
form.) 

Poe  made  an  elaborate  metrical  analysis  of  the  poem. 
Observe  its  verse  and  stanza  structure. 

"  It  was  with  a  smile  on  my  lips  that  I  wrote  it;  I  cannot  read  it 
without  a  sigh  of  tender  remembrance."  (Written  to  his  pub 
lishers  a  few  months  before  his  death.) 

Old  Ironsides. 

(The  war-ship  Constitution.) 

Written  in  an  attic-room  of  the  birth-home,  when  Holmes  was  but 

twenty. 

Published  in  The  Boston  Advertiser.    1830. 
It  saved  the  ship  from  threatened  destruction. 
"A  pet  Boston  ship,  —  built  in    that  city;    manned    by  Yankee 

crews;  had  often  brought  its  trophies  thither." 
For  an  account  of  tha  ship,  see  Coggeshall's  History  of  American 

Privateers.    Note  allusion  to  it  in  Longfellow's  poem,  "  The  Iron 

Pen  "  (read  the  prefatory  note). 
"There  had  been  no  American  poetry  with  a  truer  lilt  of  song  than 

these  «arly  verses  [of  Holmes],  and  there  has  been  none  since." 


NOTES   ON  IIIS    WHITINGS.  309 

The  Voiceless. 

"  A  laurel-wreath  laid  upon  the  grave  of  mute,  anonymous  human 
suffering." 

The  School-Boy. 

"  Fresli  in  feeling,  somewhat  chastened  by  experience,  but  as  beau 
tiful  as  the  memory  of  springtime." 

The  Song  of  Other  Days. 

A  classic  drinking-song. 
/Estivation. 

A  Latin-English  study. 
Epilogue  to  the  Breakfast-Table  Series. 

A  humorous  estimate  of  the  posthumous  value  of  his  own  works. 

Compare  with  Swift's  verses,  "  On  the  Death  of  Dr.  Swift." 

Holmes's  Poetic  Measure. 

Varied.     Dactyls  and  anapests  used,  as  well  as  iambs. 

In  his  longer  poems  the  poet  makes  frequent  use  of  the  rhymed 
heroic  couplet,  Pope's  favorite  measure.  "  Holmes  is  the  best 
American  representative  of  the  school  of  Pope." 

"  The  movement  is  so  perfect  that  one  cannot  conceive  of  the  thought 
apart  from  its  natural  music.  It  is  now  as  light  and  joyous  as 
the  flight  of  a  bird ;  now  as  steady  as  the  tramp  of  an  army ;  now 
as  gay  and  arch  as  the  practised  steps  of  a  dancer,  or  as  swift  as 
an  athlete  in  a  race."  —  UNDERWOOD. 

PROSE. 

The  Trilogy  of  the  Breakfast  Table. 

The  Autocrat.     (1858.) 

"A  genuinely  Yankee  book,  showing  New  Englandism  at  its  best." 

(A  later  period  than  Hawthorne's  New  Englaudism.) 
Unique   Form.     "A  cross  between  an  essay  and  a  drama."     "A 

semi-dramatic,  conversational,  descriptive  monologue." 
A  series  of  table-talks,  mostly  monologues,  at  a  typical  American 

boarding-house.     Slight  story. 
"The  tone  of  placid  dogmatism  and  infallible  finality  with  which 

the  bulls  of  the   domestic  pope  are  delivered  is  delightfully 

familiar."  —  CURTIS. 
"The  most  taking  serial  in  prose  that  ever  established  the  prestige 

of  a  new  magazine." 


310  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Opening  Sentence.  "  I  was  just  going  to  say  when  I  was  inter 
rupted."  (Holmes  had  written  two  papers  of  the  kind  more 
than  twenty  years  previous  to  this,  which  he  characterized  as 
"the  crude  products  of  my  uncombed  literary  boyhood.") 

The  Short  Poems  found  here  and  there  in  the  book  are  among  its 
most  pleasing  features ;  they  are  superior  in  this  work  to  those 
that  occur  in  its  successors. 

Characters  Sketched.     "  Mere  pegs  for  wit  and  wisdom." 
The  Autocrat,  "  a  Down-East  philosopher." 
The  Landlady  and  the  Landlady's  Daughter. 
"  The  young  man  named  John." 
"The  old  gentleman  that  sits  opposite." 
Our  Benjamin  Franklin. 
The  Divinity  Student. 
The  Schoolmistress. 

The  Index.  An  interesting  study,  revealing  "  the  whimsical  discur 
siveness  of  the  book." 

Illustrated  Edition.    By  Howard  Pyle.     ($5.00.) 

The  Professor.     1859. 

Graver  than  its  predecessor. 

Contains  more  romance  and  theology,  less  discussion  of  social  and 

moral  points,  and  a  smaller  amount  of  badinage  and  punning. 
The  story  of  "Iris,"  Holmes's  loveliest  creation. 
Its  best  scene  is  the  death  of  the  Little  Gentleman. 

"  The  episode  of  the  Little  Gentleman  is  itself  a  poem." 

The  Poet.    1875.     (Two  novels  intervened.) 
More  professional  in  its  nature. 
The  first  chapter  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  the  writer's  prose. 

Novels. 

"  His  themes  are  half  Hawthornesque ;  but  their  treatment  is  that  of  an 
analytical  and  tersely  didactic  Harvard  professor." 

His  favorite  subject  is  atavism,  and  the  stories  ha-ve  been  called  "  medi 
cated  novels." 

Elsie  Venner ;  A  Romance  of  Destiny. 

First  published  in  The  Atlantic,  as  "The  Professor's  Story." 
A  study  of  inherited  traits.     Elsie  is  "  a  sort  of  human  snake." 
"  The  physiological  theories  and  speculations  in  the  book  lie  in  the 
debatable  ground  between  science  and  superstition." 


NOTES   ON  HIS    WRITINGS.  311 

Consult  Macmillan's  Magazine  for  August,  18G1,  and  The  National 
Review  for  October,  1801. 

Draw  a  parallel  with  Hawthorne's  Scarlet  Letter  and  with  Whit- 
tier's  story,  "  The  Rattlesnake  Hunter." 

Suggested  Class  Headings. 

The  Apollinean  Institute.     Chapter  IV. 
The  Event  of  the  Season.    Chapter  VII. 

NOTE.  —  "The  site  of  Elsie's  home,  it  is  claimed,  was  suggested  by 
the  hills  east  of  the  Holmes  mansion"  [at  Pittsfield]. 

The  Guardian  Angel. 

A  second  study  of  heredity  (through  a  vein  of  Indian  blood),  and 

consequent  modified  moral  responsibility. 
Hero  and  Heroine ;  Gifted  Hopkins  and  Myrtle  Hazard. 
The  "  guardian  angel,"  Master  Byles  Gridley. 

"  If  any  one  would  learn  how  to  be  his  own  Boswell,  these  five  books 
are  na'ive  examples  of  a  successful  American  method." 

A  Mortal  Antipathy. 

"Holmes's  essay,  'Crime  and  Automatism,'  might  well  be  taken  as 
an  introduction  to  the  series  [of  novels]."  —  F.  L.  PATTEE. 

Biography. 

Memoir  of  John  Lothrop  Motley.    1879. 

Read  the  introduction  to  A  Mortal  Antipathy,  pp.  14—17. 

Life  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.     (American  Men  of  Letters  Series.)    1884. 
"As  remarkable  a  study  as  one  poet  ever  made  of  another." 
"  To  share  the  inmost  consciousness  of  a  noble  thinker,  to  scan  one's 
self  in  the  white  light  of  a  pure  and  radiant  soul,  —  this  is  indeed 
the  highest  form  of  teaching  and  discipline."  —  HOLMES,  upon 
the  completion  of  the  Emerson  Memoir.    (Read  the  introduction 
to  A  Mortal  Antipathy,  pp.  17-20.) 
"  These  memoirs  are  model  records  of  fact  and  character." 

Miscellaneous. 

Medical  Essays.     ("  Fearless  and  original.") 

Currents  and  Counter-Currents  in  Medical  Science. 
Homoeopathy  and  its  Kindred  Diseases. 

Mechanism  in  Thought  and  Morals.     (A  study  of  the  functions  of 
the  brain.) 

Pages  from  an  Old  Volume  of  Life. 
Travel.     Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe. 


312  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 


MISCELLANEOUS   NOTES. 

Tributes  to  Holmes. 

"  A  critic  who  punctured  vice  and  folly  with  a  lancet  so  smooth  and 
keen  it  scarce  inflicts  any  pain.  .  .  .  How  we  have  forgot  suf 
fering  in  his  and  our  own  contagious  smile!  " —  C.  A.  BARTOL. 

"Holmes  loves  fact,  yet  often  salutes  with  awe  the  superior  angel 
of  imagination.  .  .  .  Heaven  send  us  on  this  side  of  the  Atlan 
tic  a  teacher  so  wise  and  generous,  so  witty,  so  tender,  and  so 
true!  "  —  H.  E.  HAWBIS. 

"I  am  confident  that  no  writer  since  "Walter  Scott  has  given  so 
much  pleasure  to  so  many  English-speaking  people  as  he." 

—  JUDGE  HOAK. 

"If  he  should  live  to  be  the  last  leaf  upon  the  tree  of  our  noble 
band  of  New  England  authors,  may  no  rude  gust  tear  him 
away,  but  the  gentlest  of  Indian  summer  dews  loosen  his  hold." 

—  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 

"A  kindlier  philosopher  never  made  fun  for  himself  or  his  fellows." 

—  The  Westminster  Gazette. 

"  He  has  become  a  patriarch  of  our  literature,  and  all  his  country 
men  are  his  lovers." — GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

"Perhaps  more  than  any  other  American  poet  he  has  been  loved 
for  himself  rather  than  for  his  poetry.  .  .  .  To  him,  as  much 
as  to  Whittier,  God  is  the  Eternal  Goodness;  and  he  has  not 
been  able  to  think  of  God  as  wishing  for  anything  else  than  the 
happiness  of  man.  .  .  .  He  has  been  a  preacher  all  his  life  of 
the  most  serious  gospel  of  duty  and  fidelity."  —  GEORGE  WILLIS 
COOKE. 

"He  is  a  Montaigne  and  Bacon  under  one  hat.  His  varied  qualities 
would  suffice  for  the  mental  furnishing  of  half  a  dozen  literary 
specialists."  —  JOHN  G.  WHITTIER. 

"As  a  professional  man,  he  has  been  thorough  and  successful;  as 
a  man  of  letters,  versatile,  brilliant,  of  the  highest  culture ;  as 
a  citizen,  patriotic;  as  a  man,  an  exemplification  of  elegance 
of  manner  and  kindliness  of  heart." — ARTHUR  GILMAN. 

"  It  may  be  said  truly  of  Holmes,  as  Coleridge  said  of  Goldsmith, 
'He  did  everything  happily.'  "  —  P.  H.  HEDGE. 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  313 

"  By  his  life  of  spotless  purity  and  transparent  sincerity  lie  has 
crowned  the  literary  life  of  New  England  with  a  diadem  of 
imperishable  lustre."  —  KEY.  WALTER  CALLEY. 

"  There's  Holmes,  who  is  matchless  among  you  for  wit; 
A  Leyden-jar  always  full-charged  from  which  flit 
The  electrical  tinges  of  hit  after  hit ; 

His  are  just  the  fine  hands,  too,  to  weave  you  a  lyric, 
Full  of  fancy,  fun,  feeling,  or  spiced  with  satyric, 
In  a  measure  so  kindly,  you  doubt  if  the  toes 
That  are  trodden  upon  are  your  own  or  your  foes'." 

J.  R.  LOWELL. 

"Beloved  physician  of  age  of  ail! 
When  grave  prescriptions  fail, 
Thy  songs  have  cheer  and  healing  for  us  all, 

As  David's  had  for  Saul." 

WHITTIER. 

NOTE. — The  verses  above  were  the  last  written  by  Whittier,  and 
appeared  in  The  Boston  Journal  a  few  days  before  his  death. 

Lowell's  Fable  for  Critics. 

Whittier's  poem.     The  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1892. 

0.  L.  Bett's  poem.     The  Critic,  Sept.  3,  1893. 

Poems  by  Julia  Dorr,  Edith  Thomas,  Bret  Harte,  Edmund  Gosse, 
and  others.  (See  The  Critic  for  Aug.  30,  1884.) 

A  Whittier  Wish  for  Holmes. 

"  Long  may  he  live  to  make  broader  the  face  of  our  care-ridden 
generation,  and  to  realize  for  himself  the  truth  of  the  wise 
man's  declaration,  that  '  a  merry  heart  is  a  continual  feast.'  " 

The  Twofold  Literary  Man. 

"  Holmes's  devotion  to  the  Muses  of  science  and  letters  was  uni 
form  and  untiring,  as  it  was  also  to  the  two  literary  forms  of 
verse  and  prose." 

Holmes  as  Reader. 

"Holmes's  readings  were  like  improvisations.  The  poems  were 
expressed  and  interpreted  by  the  whole  personality  of  the  poet. 
The  most  subtle  touch  of  thought,  the  melody  of  fond  regret, 
the  brilliant  passage  of  description,  the  culmination  of  latent 
fun  exploding  in  a  keen  and  resistless  jest,  — all  these  were  vivi 
fied  in  the  sensitive  play  of  manner  and  modulation  of  tone  of 


314  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

the  reader,  so  that  a  poem  hy  Holmes  at  the  Harvard  Com 
mencement  dinner  was  one  of  the  anticipated  delights  which 
never  failed."  —  CURTIS. 

"He  always  writes  them  [his  college  poems]  with  joy,  and  recites 
them  —  if  that  is  the  word  —  with  a  spirit  not  to  be  described. 
For  he  is  a  born  orator,  with  what  people  call  a  sympathetic 
voice,  wholly  under  his  own  command,  and  entirely  free  from 
any  of  the  tricks  of  elocution.  It  seems  to  me  that  no  one 
knows  his  poems  to  the  very  best  who  has  not  had  the  good 
fortune  to  hear  him  read  some  of  them."  —  E.  E.  HALE. 

Rank  as  Popular  Writer. 

In  1890  Holmes  was  voted  by  the  readers  of  The  Critic  at  the  head 
of  the  list  of  American  authors,  receiving  two  votes  more  than 
Lowell  and  six  more  than  Whittier. 

Holmes  and  John  Lothrop  Motley. 
Warm  friends. 

The  historian  once  told  Holmes  that  when  he  was  worn  out  in 
his  work  in  a  foreign  land,  with  few  friends  and  amidst  piles 
of  manuscripts,  two  lines  of  the  poet's  writing  braced  him 
wonderfully,  — 

"  Stick  to  your  aim :  the  mongrel's  hold  will  slip, 
But  only  crowbars  loose  the  bull-dog's  grip." 

Motley  says  of  Holmes,  "  I  hardly  know  an  author  in  any  language 
to  be  paralleled  with  him  for  profound  and  suggestive  thought, 
glittering  wit,  vivid  imagination,  and  individuality  of  humor." 

Lowell  and  Holmes. 

"  Men  who  combine  the  culture  of  the  Old  World  with  the  inde 
finable  and  incommunicable  spirit  of  the  New."  —  An  English 
writer. 

Our  University  Poets. 

Holmes,  Lowell,  and  Longfellow. 

All  alumni  of  New  England  colleges,  and  professors  in  their  Alma 

Mater. 
Their  writings  are  imbued  with  the  university  culture  and  spirit. 

Irving  and  Holmes. 

"The  rollicking  laugh  of  Knickerbocker  was  a  solitary  sound  in  the 
American  ear  till  the  blithe  carol  of  Holmes  returned  a  kindred 
echo."  —  CURTIS. 


MISCELLANEOUS   MOTES.  315 

American  Writers  of  Metrical  Essays. 

Bryant,  Emerson,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Lowell. 

Long-Lived  American  Authors. 

Bancroft  nearly  reached  ninety  years;  Holmes  saw  his  eighty-fifth 
birthday;  Bryant  lived  to  be  eighty-four;  Whittier,  eighty- 
two  ;  Emerson,  seventy-nine ;  Longfellow,  seventy-five ;  Motley, 
sixty-three;  Cooper,  sixty-two. 

Foe  is  perhaps  the  only  prominent  American  writer  who  died  with 
out  manifesting  to  the  full  his  literary  ability. 

Holmes  on  Biographers. 

"  There  are  but  two  biographers  who  can  tell  the  story  of  a  man's  or 
woman's  life.  One  is  the  person  himself  or  herself  ;  the  other 
.  is  the  Recording  Angel.  The  autobiographer  cannot  be  trusted 
to  tell  the  whole  truth,  though  he  may  tell  nothing  but  the 
truth ;  and  the  Recording  Angel  never  lets  his  book  go  out  of  his 
own  hands." 

On  Riches. 

"  Wealth  is  a  steep  hill,  which  the  father  climbs  slowly  and  the  son 
often  tumbles  down  precipitately ;  but  there  is  a  tableland  con 
tinuous  with  it,  which  may  be  found  by  those  who  do  not  lose 
their  head  in  looking  down  from  its  sharply  cloven  summit.  .  .  . 
It  cannot  be  repeated  too  often  that  the  safety  of  great  wealth 
with  us  lies  in  obedience  to  the  new  version  of  the  Old  World 
axiom,  Richesse  oblige." 

On  Woman. 

"I  would  have  a  woman  as  true  as  death.  At  the  first  real  lie 
which  works  from  the  heart  outward,  she  should  be  tenderly 
chloroformed  into  a  better  world,  where  she  can  have  an  angel 
for  a  governess,  and  feed  on  strange  fruits,  which  shall  make 
her  all  over  again,  even  to  her  bones  and  marrow." 

"  She  who  nips  off  the  end  of  a  brittle  courtesy,  as  one  breaks  the 
tip  of  an  icicle,  to  bestow  upon  those  whom  she  ought  cordially 
and  kindly  to  recognize,  proclaims  the  fact  that  she  comes  not 
merely  of  low  blood,  but  of  bad  blood." 

"  God  bless  all  good  women  !  To  their  soft  hands  and  pitying  hearts 
we  must  all  come  at  last !  " 

On  Fame. 

"Fame  usually  comes  to  those  who  are*  thinking  about  something 
else;  rarely  to  those  who  say  to  themselves,  'Go  to,  now!  let  us 
be  a  celebrated  individual.'  " 


316  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

"  Ah,  pensive  scholar,  what  is  fame? 
A  fitful  tongue  of  leaping  flame ; 
A  giddy  whirlwind's  fickle  gust, 
That  lifts  a  pinch  of  mortal  dust ; 
A  few  swift  years,  and  who  can  show 
Which  dust  was  Bill  and  which  was  Joe  ?  " 

"  If  your  name  is  to  live  at  all,  it  is  so  much  more  to  have  it  live  in 
people's  hearts  than  only  in  their  brains!  I  don't  know  that 
one's  eyes  fill  with  tears  when  he  thinks  of  the  famous  inventor 
of  logarithms;  but  a  song  of  Burns's,  or  a  hymn  of  Charles  Wes 
ley's,  goes  straight  to  your  heart,  and  you  can't  help  loving  both 
of  them,  the  sinner  as  well  as  the  saint." 

On  Expressing  Appreciation  of  Others. 

"It  is  an  ungenerous  silence  which  leaves  all  the  fair  words  of  hon 
estly-earned  praise  to  the  writer  of  obituary  notices  and  the 
marble-maker. ' ' 

On  Wit. 

"Its  essence  consists  of  a  partial  and  incomplete  view  of  whatever 
it  touches.  It  throws  a  single  ray,  separated  from  the  rest, — 
red,  yellow,  blue,  or  any  intermediate  shade,  —  upon  an  object; 
never  white  light;  that  is  the  province  of  wisdom.  We  get 
beautiful  effects  from  wit, — all  the  prismatic  colors,  but  never 
the  object  as  it  is  in  fair  daylight." 

"  Keep  your  wit  in  the  background  until  you  have  made  a  reputa 
tion  by  your  more  solid  qualities:  you'll  do  nothing  great  with 
Macbeth's  dagger  if  you  first  come  on  flourishing  Paul  Pry's 
umbrella." 

Holmes's  Wit. 

"If  the  Autocrat's  wit  is  homely  on  one  page,  it  is  poetical  on  the 

next." 
"  Holmes  has  not  only  a  command  of  witty  phrases,  but  is  a  creator 

of  wit  in  the  concrete." 
"  As  in  the  case  of  Hood,  the  fun  in  Holmes  is  always  jostling  the 

pathos." 

"  His  sparkles  of  wit  are  like  bubbles  on  a  strong  tide  of  feeling." 
"His  winged  words  always  feathered  an  unerring  arrow." 
"  His  wit  has  been  the  solvent  of  bigotry.     He  has  never,  in  all  his 

fun,  been  a  trifler  with  truth." 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  317 

Wit  and  Humor. 
References. 

William  Mathews's  Wit  and  Humor;  Their  Use  and  Abuse. 
(S.  C.  Griggs,  Chicago.) 

Marshall  Brown's  Wit  and  Humor.     (Silver,  Burdett,  &  Co.) 

Haweis's  American  Humorists,  chap.  i. 

Whipple's  Literature  and  Life. 

Ben  Jonson's  Prologue  to  Every  Man  in  his  Humor. 

John  Weiss's  Wit,  Humor,  and  Shakespeare. 

Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  Wit  and  Humor.    1859. 

The  North-British  Review.  August-November,  1860  ("  Ameri 
can  Humor"). 

The  North  American  Review.  January,  1849  ("  Humorous  and 
Satirical  Poetry"). 

The  Cosmopolitan.  February,  1891  ("On  Certain  Latter-day 
Humorists."  By  Brander  Matthews).  January,  1894  ("Hu 
mor  ;  English  and  American."  By  Agnes  Repplier). 

Text-books  on  Rhetoric.     Bardeen.     Welsh.     Kellogg.     Waddy. 

Hart,  and  others. 
The  Two  Distinguished. 

Wit  is  unexpected.  Humor  is  anticipated. 

Wit  is  intellectual.  Humor  mingles  heart  with  brain. 

Wit  is  concentrated.  Humor  is  diffuse. 

Wit  laughs  at  things.  Humor  laughs  with  them. 

Wit  needs  words.  Humor  may  be  shown  in  action. 

Wit  is  the  flash.  Humor  is  the  electric  atmosphere. 

Wit  is  destructive.  Humor  is  creative. 

Wit  often  lashes.  Humor  is  sympathetic. 

Wit  sparkles.  Humor  glows. 

Wit  is  based  on  imagination.     Humor  is  founded  upon  truth. 
Interesting  illustrations  of  the  two  may  readily  be  found. 
"  Whoever  has  humor  has  wit,  although  it  does  not  follow  that 

whoever  has  wit  has  humor."  —  LANDOK. 
"Humor  is  properly  the  exponent  of  low  things;  that  which  first 

renders  them  poetical  to  the  mind.     The  man  of  humor  sees 

common  life,  even  mean  life,  under  the  new  light  of  sportful- 
ness  and  love;    whatever  has  existence  has  a  charm  for  him. 

Humor  has  justly  been  regarded  as  the  finest  perfection  of  poetic 

genius.    He  who  wants  it,  be  his  other  gifts  what  they  may,  has 

only  half  a  mind ;  an  eye  for  what  is  above  him,  not  for  what  is 

about  him  or  below  him."  — THOMAS  CARLYLE. 


318  OLIVER    WENDELL   HOLMES. 

Species  of  \\'il. 

Irony.     Sarcasm.    Satire.    Ridicule.    Burlesque.    Mock-Heroic. 

Parody.     Pun.     Repartee.     Irish  wit. 
Some  American  Humorists. 

O.  W.  Holmes.  J.  R.  Lowell.  Mark  Twain  (Samuel  demons). 
Artemus "Ward  (C.  F.  Brown).  Bret  1 1  art  c.  Washington  Irving. 
Mrs.  Partington  (Benjamin  P.  Shillaber).  Josh  Hillings  (Henry 
\V.  Shaw).  James  Whitcomb  Rilcy.  Charles  Dudley  Warner. 
G.  W.  Curtis.  Frank  R.  Stockton. 

The  Atlantic  Monthly.     (Named  by  Holmes.)    1857.    . 
One  of  America's  earliest  and  best  magazines. 

Established,  through  the  enterprise  of  the  firm  of  Phillips  &  Sam 
son,  Boston,  to  furnish  literary  support  to  the  anti-slavery  cause, 
and  to  encourage  homo  authors. 
Lowell  was  editor  from  its  foundation  until  l.Srt'J,  and  contributor  for 

many  years  following. 
Begun  in  a  period  of  "storm  and  stress." 

Made  from  the  first  an  impression  upon  the  public  opinion  and  taste. 
Coterie  of  Founders.    "  The  group  is  immortal." 

O.  W.  Holmes.  J.  R.  Lowell.  H.  W.  Longfellow.  Louis 
Agassiz.  J.  G.  Whittier.  John  S.  Dwight.  J.  Kliot 
Cabot.  Charles  E.  Norton.  Judge  E.  R.  Hoar.  C.  C.  Fol- 
ton.  John  Lothrop  Motley.  George  T.  Davis.  Edmund 
Quincy.  F.  H.  Underwood. 

Their  periodic  dinners  (usually  held  at  Parker's)  were  gather 
ings  memorable  for  scintillations  of  wit  and  originality  of 
thought. 
Initial  Rates  of  Remuneration. 

Editor's  salary,  three  thousand  dollars. 

Prose  from  the  best  writers,  ten  dollars  a  page. 

Average  value  of  a  poem,  fifty  dollars. 

"A  paying  American  market  for  purely  literary  vrork  began 

with  the  foundation  of  The  Atlantic." 
Prominent  Xames  associated  later  with  the  magazine. 

T.  "NV.  Higginson.  J.  T.  Trowbridge.  Rose  Terry  fooko. 
James  T.  Fields.  W.  D.  Howells.  T.  B.  Aldrich.  Horace 
E.  Scudder. 

Read  Underwood's  Lowell :    The  Poet  ami  the  Man.  chap.  v. 
Holmes's  Description  of  his  own  Method  of  Writing  Poetry. 
"It  cost  him  no  trouble  —  a  pen  full  of  ink  or  two. 
And  the  poem  is  done  in  the  time  of  a  wink  or  two ; 


MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES.  319 

As  for  the  thoughts  —  never  inind  —  take  the  ones  that  lie  upper 
most, 

And  the  rhymes  used  by  Milton  and  Byron  and  Tupper  most ; 
The  lines  come  so  easy!  at  one  end  lie  jingles  'em, 
At  the  other  with  capital  letters  he  shingles  'em,  — 
Why,  the  thing  writes  itself,  and  before  he's  half  done  with  it 
He  hates  to  stop  writing,  he  has  such  good  fun  with  it !  " 

At  the  Atlantic  Dinner.    1874. 
Last  Poem. 

Francis  Parkman.     Published  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  February, 
180ft. 

Fondness  for  Trees. 

Like  Lowell  and  Bryant,  Holmes  had  a  passion  for  trees,  and  de 
lighted  in  monarchs  among  them.  "  I  can  generally  tell  at  a 
glance,"  he  once  said,  "whether  a  tree  is  over  fifteen  feet 
around  ;  and  when  I  find  one  that  ;s  larger  than  that,  I  measure 
it  and  give  it  a  sort  of  mark  of  approbation." 
Vocation. 

That  of  a  medical  practitioner  and  lecturer;  his  avocation,  the  writ 
ing  of  occasional  poetry. 

The  Wyatt  Eaton  Portrait  of  Holmes. 

See  Selected  Proofs  of  the  Century  Company.     Plate  47. 
Scrihiu'i-'x  Mayazinc,  May,  1879. 

A  Holmes  Birthday  Book  (illustrated),   Year  Book,   and  Calendar  have 

boon  issued  by  his  publishers. 

Homes. 

IHrthplace.    An  historic  house  in  Cambridge.     (Now  removed.) 

Between  the  sites  of  Hemenway  Gymnasium  and  Harvard's  Law 
School. 

Headquarters  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  just  before  the  Revo 
lution. 

On  its  steps  Harvard's  president  stood  and  prayed  for  Prescott's 
men  as  they  inarched  by  to  Bunker  Hill. 

In  it  Benedict  Arnold  received  his  first  commission. 

Holmes  describes  it  in  the  opening  chapter  of  The  Poet  at  the 
Breakfast  Table  ("  The  Gambrel-Koofed  House  ").  This  de 
scription  is  found  also  in  American  Prose.  See  his  allusion 
to  its  destruction,  in  the  introduction  to  A  Mortal  Antipathy. 

For  views  and  additional  description,  see  HarjH'r'x  Mayazine, 
January,  lS7ti;  Scribner's  Magazine,  May,  1879;  The  Critic, 
Oct.  13,  1894. 


320  OLIVER    WENDELL  HOLMES. 

The  large  old-fashioned  key  of  the  house  is  shown  among  the 

Cambridge  relics  in  the  city  library. 
296  Beacon  Street,  Boston.    1870-1894. 

The  library  commands  a  sweeping  view  of  the  Charles,  the  river 
of  Holmes' s,  Lowell's,  and  Longfellow's  song;  from  one  of 
its  windows  the  poet  could  look  over  to  the  site  in  Cam 
bridge  of  the  home  of  his  birth. 

The  home  is  filled  with  books,  the  collection  numbering  about 
six  thousand. 

For  views,  see  The  New  England  Magazine  for  October,  1889 ; 
McClure's  Magazine  for  July,  1893;  and  Oilman's  Poets' 
Homes. 

Read  Holmes's  poem,  "My  Aviary." 
Pittsfield,  Mass.     A  summer  home  from  1849  to  1856. 

House  built  on  a  portion  of  the  large  ancestral  Wendell  estate. 
Hawthorne,  Catherine  Sedgwick,  and  Fanny  Kemble  resided 
near,  at  Lenox.  Longfellow  frequently  visited  his  wife's 
family  home  in  the  same  town,  the  "Plunkett  mansion,"  in 
the  hall  of  which  stood  for  years  the  clock  that  inspired  his 
well-known  poem. 

"  That  home  where  seven  blessed  summers  were  passed,  which 
stand  in  my  memory  like  the  seven  golden  candlesticks  in 
the  beautiful  vision  of  the  holy  dreamer." 

Read  poem  on  "The  Pittsfield  Cemetery,"  and  "The  Plough 
man." 
Beverly  Farms,  Mass.,  with  his  daughter.    A  summer  residence. 

Two  views  of  this  home  may  be  seen  in  McClure's  Magazine, 

July,  1893. 
NOTE.  —  "For  twelve  years  Holmes  lived   at  154  Charles  Street, 

Boston.     At  the  foot  of  the  garden  were  kept  the  boats  that  are 

familiar  to  the  readers  of  The  Autocrat." 


VERSIFICA  TION. 


VERSIFICATION. 


References. 

James  C.  Parsons's  English  Versification. 

Hiram  Corson's  Primer  of  English  Verse. 

Text-books  on  Rhetoric. 
Elements  of  Versification.    Rhythm.     Caesura.     Rhyme. 

I.   RHYTHM. 

Definition.  —  The  division  of  a  sentence  by  stress  of  voice  into  uni 
form  portions. 

Nature.  —  Accentual;  not  quantitative,  as  in  Latin  and  Greek. 
Elements. 

1.  FOOT.     (Measure,  number,  metre.) 

Definition.  —  A  unit  of  measure  in  rhythmical  writing. 
Kinds.     Determined  by  the  relative  position  of  the  syllable 
receiving  the  periodic  vocal  stress. 

a.  Iamb.         Device.          Longfellow's  "  Excelsior." 

b.  Trochee.     Pallid.  Poe's  "  Raven." 

c.  Anapest.     Intercede.     Longfellow's  "  Sandalphon." 

d.  Dactyl.       Beautiful.     Scott's  "  Hail  to  the  Chief  who 

in  triumph  advances! " 
Substitute  feet. 

e.  Spondee.     Long  days. 

/.   Pyrrhic.      Into.     (Both  syllables  unaccented.) 

2.  VERSE.     (Line.) 

Definition.  — A  combination  of  two  or  more  feet. 
Kindt. 

(1)   As  to  length. 

a.    Mono-meter. 

"Here  Skugg 
Lies  snug 
As  a  bug 
In  a  rug." 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 
323 


324  VERSIFICATION. 

b.    Dimeter. 

"  The  unattained 
In  life  at  last, 
When  life  is  passed, 
Shall  all  be  gained ; 
And  no  more  pained, 
No  more  distressed 
Shalt  thou  find  rest." 

Translation:  LONGFELLOW. 
C.    Trimeter. 

"  Just  men  no  longer  pine 

Behind  their  prison-bars ; 
Through  the  rent  dungeon  shine 
The  free  sun  and  the  stars." 

WHITTIER'S  Astrsea. 

d.  Tetrameter. 

"  Oh,  deem  not  they  are  blest  alone 

Whose  lives  a  peaceful  tenor  keep ; 

The  Power  who  pities  man,  has  shown 

A  blessing  for  the  eyes  that  weep." 

BRYANT'S  "  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn." 

e.  Pentameter. 

"Unleash  thy  crouching  thunders,  now,  O  Jove!  " 

LOWELL'S  Prometheus. 
/.    Hexameter. 
"The  bloom  of  young  Desire,  and  purple  light  of  love." 

GRAY'S  The  Progress  of  Poesy, 
g.    Heptameter. 
"  Sir  Patrick  Spens  is  the  best  sailor  that  ever  sailed  the  sea." 

Ballad  of  Sir  Patrick  Spens. 
h.    Octameter. 

"  All  at  once,  as  we  are  gazing,  lo,  the  roofs  of  Charlestown  blazing.' 
HOLMES'S  Grandmother's  Story  of  Bunker  Hill. 

(2)    As  to  completeness. 

a.   Acatalectic.     Complete. 

"  Have  you  heard  of  the  wonderful  one-hoss  shay  ?  " 
Anapestic  tetrameter  acatalectic. 

6.    Catalectic.     Incomplete. 

"Dwindle,  peak,  and  pine." 
Trochaic  trimeter  catalectic. 


VERSIFICATION.  325 

c.   Hypercatalectic.    With  an  extra  syllable. 
"  Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting." 
Iambic  pentameter  hypercatalectic. 

3.   STANZA. 

Definition.  —  A  combination  of  two  or  more  verses. 
Kinds. 

a.  Distich.     (Couplet.) 

"  Dead  he  lay  among  his  books! 
The  peace  of  God  was  in  his  looks." 

LONGFELLOW'S  Bayard  Taylor. 

b.  Triplet. 

"  The  school-boys  jeered  her  as  they  passed ; 
And  when  she  sought  the  house  of  prayer 
Her  mother's  curse  pursued  her  there." 

WHITTIER'S  Mabel  Martin. 

c.  Quatrain. 

"  I  know  the  way  she  went 

Home  with  her  maiden  posy, 
For  her  feet  have  touched  the  meadows 
And  left  the  daisies  rosy." 

TENNYSON'S  Maud. 

Hymns.     See  Special  Forms.     (</) 
Ballad  Metre.     See  description  of  Common  Metre, 
under  Hymns. 

d.  Five-lined. 

"  Not  as  all  other  women  are 
Is  she  that  to  my  soul  is  dear, 
Her  glorious  fancies  come  from  far, 
Beneath  the  silver  evening  star, 
And  yet  her  heart  is  ever  near." 
»  LOWELL'S  My  Love. 

e.  Six-lined. 

"  But  now  his  nose  is  thin, 
And  it  rests  upon  his  chin 

Like  a  staff, 

And  a  crook  is  in  his  back, 
And  a  melancholy  crack 
In  his  laugh." 

HOLMES'S  The  Last  Leaf. 


326  VERSIFICATION. 

f.   Seven-lined. 

"  O  poor  man's  son!  scorn  not  thy  state; 
There  is  worse  weariness  than  thine, 
In  merely  being  rich  and  great ; 
Toil  only  gives  the  soul  to  shine, 
And  makes  rest  fragrant  and  benign ; 
A  heritage,  it  seems  to  me, 
Worth  being  poor  to  hold  in  fee." 

LOWELL'S  The  Heritage. 

Short  Chaucerian  Stanza.     See  Special  Forms,      (c) 

g.   Eight-lined. 

"Where  are  the  swallows  fled  ? 

Frozen  and  dead, 
Perchance  upon  some  bleak  and  stormy  shore. 

O  doubting  heart ! 
Far  over  purple  seas 
They  wait  in  sunny  ease 
The  balmy  southern  breeze, 
To  bring  them  to  their  northern  homes  once  more." 

ADELAIDE  PROCTER'S  A  Doubting  Heart. 

Ottava  Bima.     See  Special  Forms,     (d) 

h.    Nine-lined. 

"When  whispering  strains  with  creeping  wind 
Distil  soft  passions  through  the  heart ; 
And  when  at  every  touch  we  find 
Our  pulses  beat  and  bear  a  part ; 

When  threads  can  make 

A  heartstring  ache, 

Philosophy 

Can  scarce  deny 

Our  souls  are  made  of  harmony. 

WILLIAM  STRODE'S  Music. 

Spenserian  Stanza.     See  Special  Forms,     (e) 

n.   CAESURA. 

Definition.  — A  pause  in  poetry.     (Derivation,  "a  cutting.") 
Kinds. 

a.     OF  THE  FOOT.     The  ending  of  a  word  within  a  foot. 

" The  desert  sun  was  sinking  red."     (After  "  desert  "  and  "sinking.") 


VEE  SI  PICA  T1ON.  327 

6.   OF  THE  VERSE. 

(1)  At  the  end  of  every  line.     The  poetic,  or  metric,  caesura. 

This  is  the  slightest  of  all  the  caesuras,  and  simply 
indicates  the  poetic  form  of  the  composition. 

(2)  Within  a  verse,  phrasing  it.     The  grammatical  caesura. 
"  As  it  fell  upon  a  day  (After  "  fell.") 

In  the  merry  month  of  May."     (After  "month.") 

c.   OF  THE  SENSE.     The  rhetorical  caesura. 

"  But,  see,  the  Virgin  blest        (After  "  see.") 
Hath  laid  her  Babe  to  rest." 

Two  of  these  pauses  are  often  coincident. 

When  the  metric  and  rhetorical  pauses  coincide,  an  end-stopped 
line  is  formed  ;  otherwise,  a  run-on  line. 

"Listen,  young  heroes!  your  country  is  calling."     (End-stopped). 
"  She  walks  in  beauty,  like  the  night     (Run-on.) 
Of  cloudless  climes  and  starry  skies." 

The  position  of  the  caesura  in  the  verse  is  not  fixed  ;  the  ear  de 
mands  changes  of  location,  for  variety. 

The  caesura  in  the  verse  is  sometimes  followed  by  an  extra  sylla 
ble,  sometimes  preceded  by  one. 

"  I  stand  and  calmly  wait  till  the  hinges  turn  for  me." 
"I  hate  the  dreadful  hollow,  behind  the  little  wood." 

rn.    KHYME.  (RHIME.) 
Origin.  —  Obscure. 

Ascribed  to  the  northern  European  nations,  to  the  Arabians, 

and  to  the  early  Christians. 
Orthography  and  Etymology.  —  Doubtful. 
Nature.  —  Correspondence  of  sound  between  related  syllables. 
Use.  —  Constant  in  French  poetry,  rare  in  Greek  and  Latin,  optional 

in  English. 
Kinds. 

a.   SINGLE.     (Strong,  Masculine.)     Decide,  provide. 

(1)   Alliterative.     Similarity  in  initial  sounds  of  words. 
Consonantal. 

"Wild  words  wander  here  and  there." 
Common  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry. 


328  VERSIFICATION. 

Assonantal. 

"Apt  alliteration's  artful  aid." 

Common  among  the  Irish. 
The  two  combined. 

"Ye  merry  men  all." 

(2)  End.     (Terminal.)    Correspondence  of  final  sounds,  usu 

ally  at  the  end  of  the  verse. 
Consonantal.     Distend,  command. 
Assonantal.     Flee,  lea. 

Eich.     Deplore,  explore.     Identity  of  sound  through 
out  the  rhyming  syllables. 

Perfect.     Bells,  tells.     Betrays,   displays.     The  com 
mon  form  in  modern  poetry.     (See  next  topic.) 

(3)  Middle.     (Leonine.)     Correspondence  between  the  mid 

dle  and  the  close  of  a  verse. 

"When  the  deer  sweeps  by,  and  the  hounds  are  in  cry." 

(4)  Sectional.     (Line.)     Correspondence  within  the  line. 
"  Might  trod  down  right ;  of  king  there  was  no  fear." 

b.  DOUBLE.     ("Weak,  Feminine.)     Numbers,  slumbers. 

c.  TRIPLE.     Tenderly,  slenderly.     Annuity,  gratuity. 

Used  effectively  in  humorous  poetry. 

Longer  rhymes  are   found   only  among    the   Persians    and    the 
Arabians. 

Requirements  of  Perfect  Rhyme. 

a.  Identity  ofvoivel  sound.     Moon,  soon.     Pleasures,  treasures. 

Violation.     Love,    move.     "Allowable"  rhyme   when   the 
vowel  modification  is  but  slight. 

b.  Identity  of  subsequent  sounds.     Fast,  past. 

Violation.     Disease,  increase. 

c.  Dissimilarity  of  preceding  sounds.     Soul,  toll. 

Violation.     Confound,  profound.     ( Rich  rhyme. ) 

d.  The  same  accent  on  the  rhyming  syllables.     To  know,  below. 

Violations.     To  ring,  pleasing.     The  sea,  truly. 

Blank  Verse.     Unrhymed  poetry. 

This  term  is  usually  applied  to  rhymeless  iambic  pentameter. 


VERSIFICATION.  329 


IV.    SPECIAL  FORMS   OF   VERSE  AND  STANZA. 

q.   Heroic  Measure.     (In  English  and  in  German  verse.) 
Iambic  pentameter. 

A  characteristic  form  in  English  poetry. 
Best  adapted  to  lofty  and  dignified  subjects. 
Heroic  blank  verse  was  first  used  in  English  poetry  the  early 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of 
Surrey. 
Unrhymed. 

"  But  Winter  has  yet  brighter  scenes  —  he  boasts 
Splendors  beyond  what  gorgeous  Summer  knows ; 
Or  Autumn,  with  his  many  fruits,  and  woods 
All  flushed  with  many  hues." 

BRYANT'S  A  Winter  Piece. 

This  form  is  largely  used  in  epic  and  in  dramatic  poetry. 
First  employed  in  dramatic  poetry  by  Christopher  Marlowe. 
Rhymed.     (The  Popian  couplet. ) 

"  It  is  too  late !    Ah !    Nothing  is  too  late 
Till  the  tired  heart  shall  cease  to  palpitate." 

LONGFELLOW'S  Morituri  Salutamus. 

This  form  is  often  adopted  for  satiric  and  didactic  poetry. 
Used  in  the  Drama  of  the  Restoration. 

Caesura.  This  occurs  in  heroic  measure  most  commonly  after 
the  fourth  or  the  sixth  syllable;  variety  of  position,  how 
ever,  is  essential  to  the  artistic  use  of  the  metre. 

6.    Alexandrine  Verse. 
Iambic  hexameter. 
Named   from   a  French   poem  on   Alexander,  in  which   this 

kind  of  verse  was  early  employed. 
The  heroic  measure  of  French  poetry. 

"  But  silence  spreads  the  couch  of  ever  welcome  rest." 

BYRON'S  Childe  Harold. 

c.    Short  Chaucerian  Stanza.  —  (Rhyme  Royal.) 
Seven  iambic  pentameters. 

Rhyme.  —  Verses  one  and  three  ;  two,  four,  and  five  ;  six 
and  seven. 


330  VERSIFICATION. 

"  And  forests  ranged  like  armies,  round  and  round, 
At  feet  of  mountains  of  eternal  snow ; 
And  valleys  all  alive  with  happy  sound ; 
The  song  of  birds ;  swift  brooks'  delicious  flow ; 
The  mystic  hum  of  million  things  that  grow ; 
The  stir  of  men;  and,  gladdening  every  way, 
Voices  of  little  children  at  their  play." 

HELEN  HUNT  JACKSON'S  In  The  Pass. 

d.  Ottava  Rima.     (The  Italian  heroic  measure.) 

Eight  iambic  pentameters. 

Rhyme.  —  Six  lines  of  alternate  rhyme,  followed  by  a  couplet. 

"Deep  in  the  forest  was  a  little  dell 

High  overarched  with  the  leafy  sweep 
Of  a  broad  oak,  through  whose  gnarled  roots  there  fell 

A  slender  rill  that  sung  itself  asleep, 
"Where  its  continuous  toil  had  scooped  a  well 
To  please  the  fairy  folk ;  breathlessly  deep 
The  stillness  was,  save  when  the  dreaming  brook 
From  Its  small  urn  a  drizzly  murmur  shook." 

LOWELL'S  A  Legend  of  Brittany. 

e.  Spenserian  Stanza.     (Long  Chaucerian  stanza.) 

Eight  iambic  pentameters,  followed  by  an  Alexandrine. 
Rhyme.  —  Verses  one  and  three  ;  two,  four,  five,  and  seven  ; 
six,  eight,  and  nine. 

"  Look  on  this  beautiful  world,  and  read  the  truth 
In  her  fair  page ;  see,  every  season  brings 
New  change,  to  her,  of  everlasting  youth ; 
Still  the  green  soil,  with  joyous  living  things, 
Swarms ;  the  wide  air  is  full  of  joyous  wings ; 
And  myriads,  still,  are  happy  in  the  sleep 
Of  ocean's  azure  gulfs,  and  where  he  flings 
The  restless  surge.    Eternal  love  doth  keep 
In  his  complacent  arms,  the  earth,  the  air,  the  deep." 

BRYANT'S  The  Ages. 

f.  Sonnet. 

PURE  CLASSIC  FORM.     (Italian.) 
Oldest  extant.     1200  A.D. 

Perfected  by  Petrarch.     (First  half  of  the  fourteenth  cen 
tury.) 
Structure. 

Number  of  lines.     Fourteen. 

Their  character.      Iambic  pentameter. 


VERSIFICATION.  331 

Parts. 

(1)  Octave.      Two  quatrains. 

(2)  Sestette.     Two  tercets. 

Rhyme. 
Octave. 

Verses  one,  four,  five,  and  eight. 

Verses  two,  three,  six,  and  seven. 
Sestette.     Liberty  allowed. 

Two,  or  three,  rhymes. 

Never  in  couplets.     (Not  always  observed.) 

Illustration. 

"The  holiest  of  all  days  are  those 

Kept  by  ourselves  in  silence  and  apart ; 

The  secret  anniversaries  of  the  heart, 

When  the  full  river  of  feeling  overflows ;  — 
The  happy  days  unclouded  to  their  close ; 

The  sudden  joys  that  out  of  darkness  start 

As  flames  from  ashes ;  swift  desires  that  dart 

Like  swallows  singing  down  each  wind  that  blows! 
White  as  the  gleam  of  a  receding  sail, 

White  as  a  cloud  that  floats  and  fades  in  air, 

White  as  the  whitest  lily  on  a  stream, 
These  tender  memories  are ;  —  a  Fairy  tale 

Of  some  enchanted  land  we  know  not  where, 

But  lovely  as  a  landscape  in  a  dream." 

LONGFELLOW'S  Holidays. 

Writers  of  the  Italian  Form  of  Sonnet. 

Milton,  Wordsworth,  Keats,  Mrs.  Browning,  Longfellow. 

Other  Sonnet  Writers. 

Sidney,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Daniel,  Drayton. 
Sonnets  were  introduced  into  English  by  Wyatt  and  Surrey, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 

ENGLISH  FORM  BEFORE  MILTOX'S  TIME. 

Three  quatrains  and  a  final  couplet. 

Surrey  used  but  two  rhymes  in  his  sonnets  ;  Spenser,  five  ; 

Shakespeare,  seven. 
NOTES.  —  A  sonnet  usually  expresses  but  one  sentiment. 

It  is  often  of  a  personal  nature. 


332  VER  SIFICA  TION. 

g.  Familiar  Hymn  Forms. 

a.   IAMBIC  MEASURE. 
Long  Metre.     (L.  M.) 
Four  tetrameters. 

"  Eternal  source  of  every  joy  ! 
Well  may  thy  praise  our  lips  employ, 
While  in  thy  temple  we  appear 
Whose  goodness  crowns  the  circling  year." 

PHILIP  DODDRIDGE. 

Common  Metre.     (C.  M.)     Ballad  Metre. 
First  and  third  verses,  tetrameters  ;  second  and  fourth,  trim 
eters. 

" I  mourn  no  more  my  vanished  years: 

Beneath  a  tender  rain, 
An  April  rain  of  smiles  and  tears, 
My  heart  is  young  again." 

WHITTIKR'S  My  Psalm. 

Short  Metre.     (S.  M.) 

First,   second,   and  fourth  verses,   trimeters ;    third  verse, 
tetrameter. 

"  Come,  ye  who  love  the  Lord ! 
And  let  your  joys  be  known, 
Join  in  a  song  of  sweet  accord, 
And  thus  surround  the  throne." 

ISAAC  WATTS. 
Hallelujah  Metre.     (H.  M.) 

Four  trimeters  followed  by  two  tetrameters  (or  four  dim 
eters). 

"  If  earthly  parents  hear 

Their  children  when  they  cry, 
If  they,  with  love  sincere, 

Their  varied  wants  supply  ; 
Much  more  wilt  thou  thy  love  display, 
And  answer  when  thy  children  pray." 

Six  and  Four  Syllables.     (6s  &  4s.) 

"  Come,  thou  Almighty  King, 

Help  us  thy  name  to  sing, 

Help  us  to  praise! 


VEESIFICA  TION.  333 

Father  all  glorious, 
O'er  all  victorious, 
Coine  and  reign  over  us, 
Ancient  of  Days  !  " 

CHARLES  WESLEY. 

Seven  and  Six  Syllables.     (7s  &  6s.) 
"  Jerusalem  the  golden, 

With  milk  and  honey  hlest, 
Beneath  thy  contemplation 

Sink  heart  and  voice  oppressed : 
I  know  not,  oh,  I  know  not, 

What  joys  await  me  there  ; 
What  radiancy  of  glory, 
What  bliss  beyond  compare." 

ST.  BERNARD  OF  CLUNY. 
Ten  Syllables.     (10s.) 

"  Abide  with  me:  fast  falls  the  eventide; 
The  darkness  deepens ;  Lord,  with  me  abide ; 
When  other  helpers  fail,  and  comforts  flee, 
Help  of  the  helpless,  O  abide  with  me!  " 

HENRY  F.  LYTE. 

6.  TROCHAIC  MEASURE. 

Seven  Syllables.     (7s.) 

"Rock  of  Ages!  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee ; 
Let  the  water  and  the  blood 
From  thy  wounded  side  that  flowed, 
Be  of  sin  the  perfect  cure ; 
Save  me,  Lord!  and  make  me  pure." 

AUGUSTUS  M.  TOPLADY. 

Eight  and  Seven  Syllables.     (8s  &  7s.) 

"Come,  thou  fount  of  every  blessing! 

Tune  my  heart  to  grateful  lays ; 
Streams  of  mercy  never  ceasing 
Call  for  songs  of  loudest  praise." 

ROBERT  ROBINSON. 

c.   DACTYLIC  MEASURE. 
Eleven  and  Ten  Syllables.     (11s  &  10s.) 

"  Come,  ye  disconsolate,  where'er  ye  languish, 

Come  to  the  mercy-seat,  fervently  kneel; 
Here  bring  your  wounded  hearts,  here  tell  your  anguish, 
Earth  has  no  sorrow  that  heaven  cannot  heal." 

THOMAS  MOORE. 


334  VER  SIFICA  TION. 

Ten  Syllables.     (10s.) 

"  Angel  of  Peace,  thou  hast  wandered  too  long! 

Spread  thy  white  wings  to  the  sunshine  of  love ! 
Come  while  our  voices  are  blended  in  song,  — 
Fly  to  our  ark  like  the  storm-beaten  dove  !  " 

HOLMES'S  A  Hymn  of  Peace. 

d,  ANAPESTIC  MEASUKE. 

Eleven  Syllables.     (Us.) 

"  How  firm  a  foundation,  ye  saints  of  the  Lord, 
Is  laid  for  your  faith  in  his  excellent  word ; 
What  more  can  he  say  than  to  you  he  hath  said, 
To  you  who  for  refuge  to  Jesus  have  fled  ?  " 

Portuguese  Hymn. 

Other  Special  Forms.     (Less  used.) 

The   Ode.     Terza    Rima.     The   Ballade.     The   Rondeau.     The 

Rondel.     The  Villanelle.     The  Triolet. 
(See  Parsons's  English  Versification.} 


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